Ultraviolence
by xXLadyRachelXx
Summary: When the escaped criminal Dean Ambrose tries to keep out of reach from the police, he never thought he'd cross paths with a beautiful young woman called Renee Young, who is trapped in her own personal hell. The two soon leave behind a trail of violence and death, only having each other to rely on and trying their best to survive. How long will it last before their luck runs out?
1. A Trip To Hell

**Chapter 1**

 **A Trip To Hell**

Lazily watching the world passing him by behind the window of the police car, Dean Ambrose knew that it was most likely that he would never be back in this world again. They would never let him out, they would let him rot until the day he would die; maybe they would only find out he had died only after a couple of days, maybe weeks, even... but he accepted it. Dean had accepted his fate a long time ago.

DNA doesn't lie, technology has gone quite far these days. It must've been a piece of cake for the forensics team to find the owner of the fingerprints they had found on the gun and the bruises on his wife's neck. They had caught him red-handed. Dean couldn't control himself at that moment, he didn't think about the police finding the traces that would definitely lead to him for a second. There was only one thing on his mind on that night that changed everything.

Killing his unfaithful cunt of a wife and the guy he had caught with her in their bed.

You'll never forget your first time, people say. Dean couldn't agree more. He recalled the moment when something inside him snapped when he caught that bastard lying on top of Tina in their bed, their goddamn bed they had shared for five years of marriage. Everything colored red in front of Dean's eyes, he remembered that perfectly, but he couldn't exactly remember if he had said anything to them? Did he yell? That was most likely, he was that enraged.

Enraged enough to kill both of them.

What had to be the most sickening about the discovery was the fact that he knew the guy who was there in the bedroom with his wife; he was a colleague from work, a guy he actually got along with. His name was Frank. They both worked on the construction side, it was a shitty job, but good jobs are scarce these days, everyone know that. Besides, due to the fact that Dean had already a couple of run-ins with the police when he was a teen (vandalism, fights, all the stupid shit a person might have done at one point in his or her life), it was even harder for him to get hired somewhere. The job at the construction side was just sheer luck. Anyway, Frank was an okay guy... at least, that's what Dean thought at first. He would often come over to Dean's place to have a beer and a smoke. Maybe that's when Frank and Tina caught each other's eye, know that Dean thought about it. Little did he know what would await him a couple of weeks later...

Frank had called off sick that day. Unfortunately for Dean, he was unlucky enough to enter into an argument with his boss, he didn't even know what that fight was about. But apparently it was enough for that bastard to immediately fire him, telling him to go home and not return the next day; in fact, he didn't have to show up for work for the rest of his life. So yes, Dean was already angered to begin with. On his way home, he tried to figure out a way to tell the news to his wife Tina. There was no doubt about it that she would be deeply disappointed in him.

But on that day, Dean was going to be one who was going to be disappointed... beyond, even.

As soon as he entered their house, he heard a strange, rhythmic creaking noise coming from the second floor. Dean's stomach immediately sank to his feet, he knew what could produce this kind of creaking; a bed. With his heart pounding in his head, he ran upstairs and charged into his bedroom... to catch Frank in bed with Tina.

That's when a choreography of rage started. The red 'mist' almost blinded Dean, but it was not thick enough to mask the horrified faces of his cheating slut of a wife and her lover. Frank had tried to stop Dean when he practically swung open the closet and grabbed his gun, he could clearly remember that. He had purchased that gun a long time ago to protect himself and his wife from intruders... and on this day, he was finally going to put it to use. It was already loaded. With one blast, the white sheets on the bed colored red and Frank's life had come to a gruesome end. Dean heard his wife screaming in horror, only enraging him more.

She had to die as well.

Dean remembered dropping the gun, launching himself at Tina and squeezing her throat shut with all the strength he had. She clawed at his hands to break free, leaving bloody scratches on his skin, but Dean had already been hurt enough. There was nothing more but pure fear in his wife's eyes, she must've realized the mistake she had just made; she had unleashed a killer inside her husband. Dean only stopped squeezing when she finally stopped struggling forever.

The neighbors must have heard the gunshot, which was most likely why the police soon arrived on the scene and immediately arrested Dean. He didn't even struggle when they roughly handcuffed him and dragged him outside while horrified onlookers had gathered around the house to see what the commotion was all about.

And now Dean was here, sitting in the back of a police car, his hands cuffed together, on his way to court.

There was no doubt about it he was going to be found guilty of first-degree murder, he was fully aware of that. The chance he was going to get a life sentence without any chance of parole was big, if he was lucky his lawyer could get a shorter sentence for him. But if he was truly unlucky... he would get the death penalty. The death penalty was the punishment every criminal dreaded to receive, but when Dean thought about it, it was perhaps less worse than a life sentence. At least it would be all over when they flipped the switch of the electric chair, if he would have to spend the rest of his life in prison, he would have to fight each and every day for survival. Prison was practically Hell in a concrete building, that's what Dean knew. Not that he had been in prison before, but he had heard quite some fucked up stories from an old buddy of his who had been serving a two-year sentence for an armed robbery. It was the kind of stuff you'd see on those prison documentaries on TV; gang violence, fights in the cafeteria, rapes in the shower, you named it.

Staring at the cars passing him by, Dean planned out his survival method in his head. The police car was driving on the high way, they would arrive at court in probably fifteen minutes. Perhaps if he could take down the leader of a reigning gang, he could earn the respect of a couple of prisoners. He could climb all the way to the top of the ranking ladder, but Dean knew he shouldn't be too sure of that. If he was lucky, in this case, he would receive the death penalty, sparing him a miserable life in Hell itself.

'So.'

The voice of the police officer who was driving the vehicle made Dean snap out of his thoughts. Looking up, he noticed the man, who was in his early forties, was staring at him while looking in the back mirror. Crow's-feet decorated the area around his eyes.

'Would you mind telling me why you did it?' the police officer asked. 'I'm kind of curious, to be honest. Tell me something, I don't like quiet car rides. Was there any kind of reason to kill them?'

There was a short silence between the two men.

'Look, buddy.' Dean responded peevishly. 'I don't feel like telling you, okay? It's none of your business.' And he meant what he said; there was no way in hell he would ever tell a complete stranger, who only had the task to bring him to court, the reason why he killed his wife and her lover. Besides, he was pretty sure everyone who knew about his case knew exactly what the reason was. But perhaps this guy didn't.

The police officer chuckled. 'You don't need to tell me, actually. I think I pretty much know the answer. I know how guys like you are.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'I mean that you're probably a violent prick to begin with. You most likely slapped her around for no good reason from the beginning, and when she decides she had enough of you and starts seeing another guy... you felt like they both had to be punished for it.'

'You don't know shit, alright?' Dean growled. This guy seriously started ticking him off. He had never been violent to Tina before, he had always treated her with respect because he loved her, even if they didn't have much... but apparently that love wasn't enough for her.

The police officer grinned from ear to ear, as if he loved doing this to Dean. He couldn't keep his mocking eyes off of him. 'You can tell me whatever you want, but know this, scumbag... you're going to pay for what you have done. You're life's gonna be a living nightmare in prison, I'll tell you that. You are going to wish you have never-'

Just then, out of nowhere, a deer emerged from the forestation that was located right next to the highway, jumped over the guardrail and ran in front of the police car, all while possible attempting to cross to the other side. The police officer was way too fixated on tormenting Dean to notice this... but Dean saw it all happening.

Just before he could open his mouth to yell at the police officer to look out, the police car drove into the animal with full force, making the world around Dean violently tremble with a mighty impact. Blood splattered all over the cracked front window, completely blocking the sight. The vehicle started spinning around with screeching tires as the police officer desperately attempted to regain control, but it was impossible.

Another loud bang followed, along with the sound of crushing metal. The guard rail, Dean realized. They must have had collided with the goddamn guard rail. Suddenly, he was lifted off his seat and his head hit the rooftop with a painful thud before he was launched against the window. Dean squeezed his eyes shut as he was being thrown around like a ragdoll in the back of the police car. They must be falling, it had to be, he thought. Perhaps from a hill or-

One more hit against the rooftop was enough for the world around Dean to color black in an instant.


	2. Newfound Freedom

**Chapter 2**

 **Newfound Freedom**

Dean tried to open his eyes, but just as he thought he was able to do so, a sharp pain filled up every spot inside his head.

'Ugh... fuck...' he groaned, touching his forehead with his fingertips. He expected to feel his own sticky blood, but he didn't feel anything. No serious injuries, just knocked out cold. For a moment, Dean couldn't remember where he was; hell, for a split second he didn't even know what day it was today. His body was aching all over, he was sure he was covered in bruises. Dean took a deep breath and tried to open his eyes again. This time, it worked. At first his surroundings were a little bit blurry. When Dean blinked his eyes in an attempt to get a better sight, another jolt of pain traveled through his head, causing him to hiss through his teeth. He decided to give it another shot. He opened his eyes once more, luckily he got a better view on his surroundings this time.

Dean was trapped in a small world of broken glass and leather.

It all came back to him in a flash; the collision with the deer, the impact, the police officer losing control over the vehicle, the police car hitting the guardrail and tumbling down a hill... that's all what he could remember; everything went dark after the last part.

Looking around him, Dean realized that he was completely trapped. And he wasn't into a rather comfortable position either; his head was lying against the cracked window, he was looking straight at the opposite passenger's door. His neck and back felt sore, which is something pretty damn serious, he knew. But he didn't feel any numbness in his limbs or anything; it was most likely due to the uncomfortable position he was in.

It was completely quiet inside the wrecked police car. 'How long have I been out...?' Dean mumbled to himself in wonder. He could've been passed out for hours, days even. Nah, that was not very likely. He must've been out for a little while, or else cops would've been crawling all over the place to search for them. Which reminded him... where was the police officer?

Looking to his right, Dean saw a humanoid figure slumped on his side, the seatbelt being the only thing that prevented it from falling off his seat. Upon closer inspection, he made a horrific discovery; the cervical vertebrae were sticking right out of the back of the police officer's neck. Thin streams of blood trickled down the white bones, droplets falling off every few seconds.

'Jesus Christ...' Dean whispered in awe. This guy had to be dead, without a doubt.

Then he suddenly realized something. What if the police car was dripping fuel right now? It would only take one spark to set everything ablaze, resulting into a slow and painful death for him. Dean had no idea how long he had been knocked out, but it was very likely that the police might be searching for the missing vehicle now; there were plenty of cars driving on the highway, someone must have reported the accident for sure.

Dean had to get out.

Now.

This was his only chance to escape from it all. The cops weren't here yet, he still had some time left. But how the hell was he going to get out of here? Dean looked around him, looking for anything that could possibly help him to escape this wreck. He stared at his handcuffs; small pieces of glass had cut open the skin on his hands, but the cuts were small and not deep enough to bleed. He had to get rid of the handcuffs first, any man walking next to the highway wearing handcuffs was bound to look suspicious as hell. But where were the keys? Dean glanced at the dead body of the police officer. Could it possibly be...?

He decided to give it a shot, but he had to hurry; the cavalry could arrive at any moment.

The screen that separated the front part of the police car and the back seat had clearly been loosened up due to the impact of the crash. Dean figured that if it received a couple of strong, well-placed kicks, the screen would surely fall out of its frame. He tried to move his body, it made him feel even more sore, but the pain would be worth the freedom. When Dean managed to sit up, he could hear the entire police car loudly, almost dangerously creaking due to this movement. For a moment, he was afraid that what was left of the vehicle would collapse if he would move any further, but he refused to sit here and let those bastards take him. Now sitting up, Dean positioned his foot against the screen. With all the strength he had, he delivered the first kick. The screen produced a soft creaking noise, but one kick was obviously not enough. Dean kicked the screen once again, this time harder. He could swear he saw the screen slightly moving; for a moment he thought he was already tasting his freedom on the tip of his tongue, but he wasn't there just yet. A third kick was launched. He could see it clearly now, it was moving! Just a bit more! The fourth kick caused his leg to feel a bit sore, but Dean couldn't give less than a damn about that. That goddamn screen was the only thing that was standing between him and the keys of the handcuffs, he would get his hands on them no matter how sore his body was.

One more should do it, Dean felt it in his bones.

And he was proven right; the fifth kick was enough to finally break the screen out of its frame. Alright! Now he only had to go get the keys...

The wreck slightly moved when Dean leaned forward, his torso going through the frame. He couldn't get a clear view to see if the police officer indeed did have the keys that would lead him to his freedom, but in order to do that, he had to slightly move the dead body. Dean felt his stomach clenching together at the thought of being this close to a corpse, but he had to suck it up now. He carefully pushed away the head of the police officer, causing his broken neck to produce a sickening crunching noise that made a shiver run up his spine. Dean paused for a moment to take a deep breath, then shoved the dead body away from him, using his arm to keep it at bay. In the corner of his eye, he saw something metallic hiding in the pocket of his blood-stained jeans.

It were the keys, it had to be!

With his free hand Dean retrieved them out of the pocket and quickly pulled back, allowing the corpse to slump back into his original position before it could even touch him.

'Okay, okay...' Dean whispered to himself, staring at the bundle of keys. 'Now, which one are you?' He carefully studied the keys one by one. There were seven of them, each had a different size and shape; one of them had to be the key of the handcuffs. Dean tried the first one on the keyhole, but it was too big to fit in. The second key failed to fit as well, just like the third, fourth, fifth and sixth one... A mildly uncomfortable feeling started to rise in Dean's belly when he stared at the seventh and final key. This one was much tinier than the rest, this one had to fit, there was no other way!

'Come on...!' Dean growled when he stuck the key inside the keyhole. The soft click he heard when he twisted the key sounded like music to his ears, you couldn't even imagine. A small grin spread across Dean's face when he loosened the handcuffs around his wrists, the iron clanging on the floor when it fell down. He made small movements with his wrists; damn, it felt so good to be able to move them again.

But now there was only thing left: getting the hell out of here.

Glancing up, Dean saw the only way of escaping. The passenger's door. As he crawled up the seat, he hoped that the lock just worked fine despite the crash, even if the chance was rather minimal. If so, he would just kick his way out of here, simple as that. A tiny piece of stray glass that was sticking against the leathery material of the seat pierced through the palm of his hand, but Dean barely felt it. Pulling the handle, he could now almost taste his freedom, he was so close, so damn close...

The passenger's door opened without a budge.

Dean blinked his eyes in surprise, he almost couldn't believe it!

Opening the door with all the strength he had, he finally managed to reach the top and pull himself out of the wreck, landing on the ground with a loud thud as soon as he crawled out. Dean's cheek touched a mixture of earth, dried pine needles, small twigs and pieces of glass. Letting out a soft groan, he got up on his feet and turned around to look behind him... only to realize how lucky he was to make it out alive.

'Holy shit...'

From the outside, the police car looked even worse than it did on the inside. There were deep dents and ugly scratches on every spot, blood colored the entire front in a deep shade of red, there was barely anything of the original shape of the vehicle left, gasoline was dripping out like crazy. This was what one single full-grown deer could cause. Dean was so damn lucky to be alive.

Looking around him, he finally found out where he had exactly ended up.

The police car had rolled down all the way from the top of a hill into a forest.


	3. The Truck Ride

**Chapter 3**

 **The Truck Ride**

'Okay Dean, think for a second... how am I gonna get out of here...?' Dean mumbled to himself as he looked around him. His head might still be hurting from the crash, but his brain was still working perfectly.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a lonely rabbit running towards the bushes to look for cover... as if it knew what the man had done in the past. Dean shook his head. That was absolutely ridiculous; as if wild animals would somehow got to know you have your unfaithful wife's and her scumbag lover's blood on your hands. No, he had to think of more important things, like getting the hell out of this forest before the cops would find him.

This was Dean's only chance to stay out of prison and he wasn't going to waste it.

The hillside looked pretty steep, but with a bit of effort he could possibly be able to climb up there and get back on the highway. But when Dean thought about it, he realized that this move was quite a risky one. There was a chance that the cops had already arrived on the scene; they just had to catch a glimpse of him one time and he would receive a one-way ticket to the electric chair. Studying the hillside, Dean thought about whether he should do it or not. Yes, it would take some effort to climb up there, but he was sure he would be able to do that. Maybe he could just take a peek up there to make sure the coast was clear, if he saw that the cops were close or had already arrived, he could slide back down and make a run for it if he had to. Hell, it wouldn't be the first time that Dean ever had to run like a bat out of hell from the men in uniform; when he was still in his teenage years and was caught by the police while vandalizing a run-down house with a couple of buddies, he ran as fast as he could, climbing over hedges and even running through someone's garden at one point, he swore he had never felt such a big adrenaline rush in his entire life. However, Dean's escape attempt turned out to be futile; the cops caught him either way, resulting the teen to be forced to partake in community service for a while as a punishment and his parents raining down their wrath upon him. That incident was only the start of his criminal record; it wouldn't last long until more charges would follow.

But there was no time to think about the past. Dean should take action, now. He decided to give it a shot.

He positioned himself against the hillside, trying to find a proper, strong grip with his hands and right foot. Luckily it didn't look like the climb was going to be that difficult after all; Dean didn't slip away when he positioned his left foot and pushed himself up. But he shouldn't celebrate just yet; he still had a long way to go. Dean moved again, feeling the earth crumbling away underneath his shoes. If he didn't want to fall, he had to hurry, now. As Dean managed to climb higher and higher as fast as he could, trying his best not to slip and find a good grip every time he moved. Glancing to his left, he saw what other damage the car crash had caused; while rolling down the hill, the police car had taken along a huge amount of earth, leaving a trail of destruction on the hillside. A chill ran up Dean's spine. He could've ended up just like that police officer down there, whose corpse was still seated down there in the wreck with his cervical vertebrae sticking out of him. Shaking the blood-chilling memory off of his mind, Dean decided to continue climbing.

He was halfway when he heard loud rumbling noise rolling from the sky. Looking up, he saw that the clouds had joined together and formed a thick, grey sheet, blocking out every blue spot of the sky. Damn it, it's going to rain soon. It looked like Dean's freedom greeted him with a pain in the ass of an obstacle and a rain shower that was most likely to happen. But hell, no rain would stop him from reaching the top!

Dean heard the sound of cars passing by growing louder as he got closer to the top of the hill. He saw the guardrail that was supposed to catch their fall; now it was nothing more but a piece of worthless scrap metal, ripped into two due to the massive impact. He was almost there, so close!

'Come on, just a little bit more...' Dean mumbled to himself. How long did he take to get all the way to the top? Five minutes, he guessed. He didn't hear any voices, so it was very likely that the cops hadn't arrived yet... which was nothing more but good news to him. After pulling himself up for three more times, he had finally reached the top. Dean pulled himself up one last time, pulled himself over the edge and got up on his feet.

He let out a tired sigh and slowly nodded. Thank God, he had made it. Looking around him, his theory was proven right. The cops hadn't arrived on the scene just yet, but for some reason Dean wondered why they weren't here. Were the lines all being used at this moment? Maybe. But there was no time to wonder about that, he had to go, now. A couple of cars passed him by, but nobody seemed to have time or enough interest to glance at the escaped murderer... which Dean was actually kind of pleased with.

The only way to get out of this place was by car... he quickly realized he had to hitchhike.

The thought of hitchhiking didn't faze Dean the slightest, to be honest. He had done that before one time, once again in his teenage years. He had hitchhiked all the way from his home town to a city five kilometers away from where he lived to attend a party of one his pals. The driver who picked him up was a lady in her late forties who actually looked pretty damn good for someone her age. Dean knew he was quite a good-looking kid back then, so maybe that's why she had decided to pick him up that night. He had barely spoken a word during the ride, mostly because he was too busy staring at the voluptuous chest of the woman, but of course he made sure to not be caught staring. Dean couldn't help but chuckle at the memory; he was such a little prick back then, unbelievable.

Climbing over the guard rail, Dean put on the most charismatic grin he could produce on his face in an attempt to look more attractive to a potential driver and put his thumb up. Now it was just a matter of waiting...

One car seemed to slow down at first, as if the driver was considering to give this stranger a ride. But just as it looked like Dean was going to get some help, the driver decided to continue driving and leave him on the side of the road with false hope.

'Asshole.' Dean growled as he watched the car driving away.

More cars passed him by, all unwilling to give him a ride. As the minutes ticked by, Dean grew more agitated due to the fact that the police could be here at any given moment now. If he didn't get a damn ride now, he was going to get caught for sure.

'Come on, come on...' Dean hissed when the tenth car passed him by. Jesus Christ, what was wrong with people these days? Where they all too self-centered to give somebody in need a little hand? Suddenly, a loud rumble echoed through the grey sky and Dean was almost immediately soaked with rain.

'Are you fucking kidding me...?' Great, just great.

Just when Dean considered the option of walking alone, things finally seemed to look up a bit. In the distance, he saw a huge truck slowing down, making him blink his eyes in surprise. Could it really be...? The truck approached him closer and closer, slowing down more as it did so. It stopped right next to him with screeching tires, followed by a loud puffing noise. Dean saw the driver scooting up in order to open the passenger's door; he managed to do so and swung it open.

'Need a ride, buddy?' the truck driver, a slightly overweight man in his late thirties with blonde hair and a Southern accent asked.

'You could say that again!' Dean replied, trying to make his smile look friendly; truth was, he just wanted to get the fuck out of here.

'Well, hop on then!' The truck driver patted on the leather material of the passenger's seat. 'They say the weather's only gonna get worse, nobody wants to be out here at this time!'

'Alright, thanks!' Dean didn't hesitate for a moment to get inside the truck. He slammed the passenger's door shut, closing it with a dull thud. The truck driver moved the gear shift and off they went. Glancing at the side mirror, Dean saw a pair of blinking red and blue lights appearing in the distance. Holy hell, he had made it just in the nick of time... Dean leaned his head against the back of the seat and let out a sigh. It looked like all the luck in the world was on his side today.

It actually looked kind of cozy inside the truck. 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' was playing on the radio on a low volume, the leather of the seats had a deep shade of red and necklace with a wooden cross attached to it was wrapped around the back mirror. Rain splashed against the front window, only to be wiped away every few seconds.

'Man, look at you...' the truck driver said. 'You look like a drowned cat, like my mama would say. How the heck did you end up out there on the side of the road?'

'Err... I got into a fight with my wife and she decided to kick me out of the car.' Dean lied. 'She has quite a temper, you know...'

Suddenly, the truck driver burst into a short fit of laughter. 'Yup, the ladies are gettin' pretty fierce these days!' he laughed. 'Gettin' a little bit of attitude, you know what I mean? But don't you have a cell phone or somethin'? Couldn't you call anybody?'

Dean shook his head. 'No, I left it in the car.'

Again, the truck driver roared with laughter. 'Aren't you the unluckiest guy on dear mother Earth? Your wife must be a quite the lady! But you're not the only one, you know? My wife, my dear Joyce, she can be like that too sometimes. But she's actually just a sweet angel and a loving ma, I tell you that.' He pointed at a photo that was lying on the dashboard on Dean's side. It displayed a rather chubby brunette woman sitting on a chair with two little boys on her lap.

'I really miss my family, I won't deny that... but hey, someone has to earn the money, right?'

Dean nodded. 'Yup.'

'Say, I haven't introduced myself to you! Sorry for being rude! The name's Ted, what's yours?'

'Dan. My name is Dan.' Dean replied. If you want to make sure you won't be found, you often had to lie, even about your name. It was kind of a shame to lie to this nice guy, who had absolutely no idea that he had just picked up an escaped murderer. Dean would sure he would get the shock of his life if he would ever see his face during a news report on TV.

'Pleased to meet you, Dan!' Ted said. 'Hey, do you feel like having a drink? You really look like you could have one right now?' He slightly leaned to his right and retrieved a bottle of Jack Daniel's from the gap next to his seat. 'Don't worry, I haven't been drinkin'. Don't want to cause any accidents.' The poor bastard didn't even realize he was dealing with someone who had been in an accident just a while ago.

Staring at the deep bronze liquid in the bottle, Dean shrugged. 'Sure, why the hell not.' he said. He sure as hell could use a drink at this moment, but he knew he should take only one sip; if he would get drunk, he could slip up and get himself arrested. He grabbed the bottle from Ted's hand, twisted off the cap and took a gulp. The drink burned in his throat and had a strong taste, but it felt good nonetheless.

'There you go, buddy!' Ted exclaimed cheerfully. 'Drink it all up if you want!'

Dean nodded, but didn't say anything.

'Where do you want me to bring you? You got any family around here?'

Dean thought about it. 'Just bring me to the closest city around here.' he said after a short moment of silence. As soon as he would arrive there, he would figure out what he was going to do next.

'Hmm... the closest city right now is Rey City, I think. I can bring you there if you want.'

'Sure. Thanks.'

* * *

About less than fifteen minutes later, Ted stopped the truck at the border of a city that had to be Rey City. Thankfully the rain didn't last for too long, it had just stopped raining when they arrived.

'Thanks a lot, Ted.' Dean said when he hopped out of the passenger's seat. 'I owe you one.'

'You're welcome, I enjoy helping good folk like you!' the truck driver replied with a grin.

Dean smiled and nodded, but he wasn't sure if he would ever call himself a good person. He had never met a person who would say that someone who killed two people was still a good fella...

'Good luck, and tell your wife that Ted said hi!'

'I'll do that, don't worry about that. Have a good trip, Ted!'

The truck driver closed the passengers door and drove away, leaving Dean to figure out what next step he was going to take.


	4. Red Lipstick

**Chapter 4**

 **Red Lipstick**

Rey City had to be the most depressing city in the whole country, if not, the whole world if you'd ask Dean.

Perhaps it was the grey sky and the rain that had soaked the streets that contributed to the somewhat lackluster atmosphere. Dean guessed the people who lived here only chose to live in this city because the apartments looked cheap. Looking at the apartment buildings he was passing by, the escaped murderer couldn't help but think about his home where he grew up as a child. The walls of the apartment were thin, so you could exactly hear what the alcoholic neighbor was shouting at his wife in his drunken stupor. If you would head outside to the hallway, the heavy smell of cat piss would fill up your nose; you could thank the lady next door to that, who considered her eleven cats she had picked up from the streets as her own children. Dean was sure that every apartment complex had its own kind of shady residents and the apartment complexes in Rey City were no exceptions.

It looked like the rain had decided to come back for a second round, but this time in a more gentler way. As the rain drizzled from the sky, goose bumps appeared all over Dean's arms. Even though he was wearing a leather jacket, he could still feel the cold of a gust passing him by. Fucking hell, it was summer but instead of that it felt like autumn had already arrived. Thank God they didn't force him into the orange prison overalls just yet, or else it would've made things just more complicated.

If he had known he would escape his trial today, he would've brought money with him for sure. Dean clenched his fists in the pockets of his jeans; there wasn't even a single stray dime in there. Without money, you can't get anywhere, that's what he had learned as a kid, when he grew aware of his parents' dire financial state. And without money, some people can become desperate. Dean decided not to get too desperate, but if he wanted to rent a temporary room in a motel or inn, he was going to need some money, without a doubt; Dean highly doubted there would be any hotels, motels, or inns that would let people stay for free, if you wanted to go bankrupt that would definitely be the best way to get there. Perhaps there was a homeless shelter around here, then there was at least something this goddamn city did right. And if not, well... then Dean had to go pick a pocket or two. This was something else he didn't back down for; if he needed some quick cash for cigarettes or alcohol as a teen, he'd just hang around in the streets and with enough stealth he managed to yank a wallet out of someone's back pocket without him or her even noticing it.

Just when Dean was walking past a small pool of rain water, a car next to him on the street suddenly sped up and drove right through the pool, sending the water splashing against Dean's legs, as if the driver had done that on purpose.

'Watch where you're driving, fucking moron!' Dean shouted angrily, earning the attention from a couple of fellow pedestrians. The wet material of his jeans was sticking against his legs; possibly one of the most unpleasant feelings ever.

Dean let out a barely audible sigh. 'Great...' he mumbled. He would've bought a new pair of dry jeans if he had the chance, but now it looked like he had to stick with these for a while. He decided to continue exploring the city.

When Dean walked past a diner and glanced through the window for a moment, he could feel his empty stomach growling. The smell of bacon and French frites that curled from the back of the diner made his hunger even worse; it must be afternoon now, Dean was sure of it. It half past ten when he was forced to take a seat inside the police car, he still remembered that. He tried his best to ignore his hunger, reassuring himself that he would definitely get something to eat before this day would end, one way or another. The thought of pick pocketing sounded more tempting than ever now...

Then, when Dean looked over his shoulder to make sure that nobody was following him, he saw a police car turning around the corner. His heart skipped a beat.

Damn it!

The first thing that jumped into the escaped criminal's mind was to run like a bat out of hell, but that would immediately raise the suspicion of the police. No, he had to stay calm, no matter what. Looking around him, Dean scanned the area around him, looking for a possible way to get out of here. The police car was approaching; he had to be fast.

Once again, it looked like luck was on Dean's side once again. On his right, there was an alley that was littered with trash, but it was the only way to escape. Dean turned right and walked into the alley, trying to look as calm as possible. Nobody who was paying attention to him; and he preferred it that way. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the police car passing him by without even taking notice of him.

Dean let out a sigh of relief. It looked like he was going to remain a free man for a bit longer.

He wondered where the alley would lead him to. Strangely enough, walking through this alley made Dean kind of feel at home. Graffiti tags decorated almost every spot on the walls, a few trash bags were torn open, causing trash to litter his path and a rat made a run for a nearby trash can to possibly scavenge for food. Loud, angry voices echoing through the alley made the escaped murderer look up. It was most likely coming from one of the apartments, it sounded like a couple were having a heated argument and it didn't last long before the cries of a little child mixed with the mean-spirited words. Dean couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the child who was forced to deal with this mess; he too had been in a family situation like this.

Turning left, he saw that the alley lead to a new street. Just when Dean headed out off the alley, it stopped drizzling. On the other side of the street, there was a big, green park, possibly the only highlight of this depressing city. And right there, at the entrance of the park, Dean saw a woman.

The kind of woman who'd immediately catch your eye, one way or another.

She was a young woman, possibly coming close to Dean's age. She had long blonde hair and a slender body. The first thing that the escaped criminal noticed is how red her lips were. That had to be a lipstick color, there was no doubt about it. Even from the other side of the street, he saw that the white, short, fur coat that the woman was wearing was fake. Underneath the faux fur coat, she was wearing a deep red top, black leather mini skirt, fishnet stockings and brown suede boots.

She was a prostitute, Dean realized.

It became clear to him that she didn't enjoy doing this dirty work at all, judging from her body language. Her arms were folded together, as if she was freezing cold. Her facial expression came close to nervousness, as if she was doing this for the first time... or was afraid to receive any customers. This woman could've possibly been so much better than this, becoming a model or perhaps even a movie star, but life decided to spit on her and force her to do this work. Dean wasn't a stranger to prostitutes, in fact, he even used to live in the same apartment complex with them back when he was a kid. All of those women were filled up with drugs and alcohol to make their job easier, their bodies were so disgustingly thin that not even a blind man would pay them for sex. But this prostitute right here looked different, she didn't look like an addict at all.

If Dean had to be honest... she reminded him of an angel, somehow.

A fallen angel, in this case.

Suddenly, a car with rusty spots all over the frame pulled over in front of the prostitute. She leaned forward and asked something to the driver, but Dean couldn't exactly hear what she was saying. The prostitute walked around the car, opened the passenger's door and stepped in.

The escaped murderer could see one last thing before the car took off.

The face of the prostitute expressed nothing more but sadness.


	5. Beauty In Tears

**Chapter 5**

 **Beauty In Tears**

It looked like stealing someone's wallet hadn't been necessary after all. Thank God for that scrawny hotdog vender who pushed his hotdog cart all the way through the entire park to take a little bathroom break, leaving the hotdog cart unguarded and allowing Dean to get his lunch for that afternoon without paying a single cent.

Sitting on a bench in the park, Dean enjoyed his freshly stolen hotdog. To be honest, he actually felt pretty relaxed right now. So far the park looked kind of deserted, he had seen very few people around here; perhaps the residents of Rey City were even too miserable to go outside and have some fresh air. And thankfully he didn't see a single cop patrolling the area around here. If spending your freedom in solitude would help you staying out of reach from the police, then so be it; Dean preferred being a free man all alone so much more than rotting away behind bars with the most dangerous company you could ever imagine.

The sound of crackly pebbles made Dean look up. A young couple, possibly in their mid-twenties, passed him by without barely even noticing him since they had only eye for each other. A toddler held the hand of his mother, trying to keep up with his parents. Unlike them, he did notice Dean sitting on the bench; turning his head around, the toddler smiled at the man, showing all of his calf's teeth as he did so. Dean briefly smiled back, but he gave the kind of smile people would give to others so that they could just leave them alone. He stared at the couple until they disappeared out of his sight.

He and Tina could've been like that, Dean realized.

Even though the couple looked slightly tired to him, they looked happy. If things would've gone different, they could've gone for strolls in the park, have a pleasant chat, hell, even having a child together maybe. But all of those chances had died an agonizing death with a single shot from a gun and one tight squeeze. Dean started to wonder why Tina had betrayed him like this. Sure, they didn't have much money, but they had loved each other for years... at least, that's what he thought. Did she get tired of him or did she simply just want more? But did Dean regret killing Tina and her lover?

No.

He didn't feel one bit of regret for taking their lives.

That unfaithful bitch deserved to die, this was all her own fault. Sleeping with his colleague was the biggest mistake she had ever made and she had to pay with her life for it. Dean had done nothing more but his best for her in their five years of marriage, he wanted to prove that he was nothing like his own poor excuses of parents, who yelled and attacked each other for the most ridiculous reasons. But she had to go and fuck some other man behind his back... for that, he would never forgive her. Even now that she had died, Dean didn't feel like forgiving his cheating wife. The same went to Frank. He thought that fucker was his friend. Who knows how long that goddamn affair had been going on...

Dean shook his head. Call him a heartless bastard if you will but he would never regret killing them. They were dead to him... literally and figuratively.

After he had finished eating his hotdog, he became thirsty. Too bad he didn't see any drinks on the hotdog cart, or else he would've snatched one as well. Dean got up and looked around for a drinking fountain. Every park had a couple of them, Dean was sure this park wasn't an exception, even if it was located in the most depressing city in the world. After searching for five minutes, he finally found a drinking fountain a few feet away from the entrance of the park. Pressing the button on top of the tap, Dean allowed the cold water to fill his mouth. Water always felt the best when you were thirsty as hell. When his thirst was finally quenched, Dean removed the pressure on the button and wiped the corner of his mouth.

He glanced up at the sky; it must be halfway the afternoon now. His hunger and thirst was silenced, the only thing he had to do now was to find a place to sleep for the night. This might be a risky move, though. Who knows, maybe his mug shot had been showed on all news channels already, along with the headline 'Escaped murderer escapes trial'. Everyone would recognize his face then, he wouldn't be safe anywhere. Did they discover the wreck of the police car with the corpse of the police officer in it by this time? That was very likely.

Dean decided to go for a second stroll through Rey City; hopefully he would find a place to stay for a while soon enough. The escaped criminal headed towards the entrance of the park. Just when he was a few steps away from heading back into the city, a car stopped in front of the park; the same car that had picked up that prostitute a while ago, Dean was sure of it. It had the same rusty spots. The passenger's door opened and the fallen angel stepped outside. Without saying a single word, the prostitute closed the door behind her. The car sped off in a second, leaving her all alone. She walked back to the spot where she was standing earlier, arms folded together and staring at the ground in shame.

Upon closer inspection, Dean saw that the prostitute's face looked even sadder than it did before. Shame and disgust was practically radiating off of her body, he could clearly see it. That's when he saw it; that poor cow was on the verge of crying. The prostitute bit her lipstick-covered lower lip in a desperate attempt to fight back her tears, but she failed miserably. The shame was too much for her. Covering her mouth with both her hands, the young woman almost inaudibly sobbed. Her tears mixed with her mascara, leaving thin streams of black on her cheeks.

And before he could even realize it, Dean felt nothing more but pity for her.

She was a broken soul, that was painfully obvious. For some reason, he felt that he and she, this fallen angel, had something in common. She was a complete stranger and yet he felt like they were the same kind of people, like they had some sort of connection. They were both fucked over by life, each in a different way. They were both trapped in their own personal kind of hell; while Dean tried to flee from his, this woman was trapped in hers. Dean decided to do something for her, to make her current suffering a little bit more bearable. He retrieved a napkin out of the pocket of his jeans. He had stolen that napkin along with the hotdog, it didn't have a single sauce stain on it. Dean walked towards the prostitute, who had no idea that someone had just watched her being in complete misery.

'Here you go.' Dean said, holding the napkin in front of the woman.

The prostitute softly gasped and looked up in surprise. 'W-what?' she asked.

'You can have this, I don't need it anyway. Wipe off your tears with this.'

'Oh...' the prostitute replied with a soft voice. For a brief moment she seemed to hesitate about accepting the napkin, but she took it anyway. 'Thank you.' She brushed her mascara-mixed tears off of her cheeks, staining the snow white napkin with black. 'Sorry for asking this, but... is there still something on my face? I have a strong feeling my mascara bled...'

Dean shook his head. 'Nah, don't worry about it. Your face is fine, trust me.'

'Right...'

The prostitute sniffled and let out a soft sigh. 'You have to pay in advance.' she said with a nearly emotionless voice, staring at the ground. 'Fifty dollars for a handjob, hundred dollars for a blowjob and two-hundred dollars for...'

'Wow, what the fuck?! No!' Dean exclaimed in mild shock. 'I'm not here to have sex with you! Why the hell would you think that?'

'Then why are you talking to me?' the prostitute replied; this time her voice had something bitter. 'Don't you have better things to do? Why would you waste your time talking to someone like... like me?'

'Because I saw you bawling your eyes out after getting out of that car, that's why. And... I felt like doing something for you.'

'You don't even know me...'

'True, but I can't stand seeing a lady like you being all miserable by her herself.'

The prostitute softly chuckled. 'Ha... it has been a long time since someone has actually called me a lady.'

'Then I'll be glad to be that person to do that. Say... do you have a name?'

The woman didn't say anything for a little moment, as if she was again hesitating. Then she looked Dean straight in the eyes, perhaps finally overcoming her bitterness. Only now, Dean saw that she had the prettiest hazel eyes he had ever seen.

'The name is Renee.' the prostitute said.

'Renee...' So fallen angels do have names. 'Alright, since you've told me your name, I'll be honest with you as well. My name is Dean.'

Renee softly nodded, trying to give a small smile. Though she managed to do that, it didn't look that convincing. 'Nice to meet you, Dean. Seriously, you are the first guy to ever approach me without wanting to have sex...'

The escaped criminal snorted. Some men just refused to treat a woman with respect... 'Something about you tells me that you don't enjoy doing this...' he said.

The smile disappeared off of Renee's face. She shook her head in shame. 'No.'

'Then why are you doing this? Aren't there any other ways for you to earn money? You can get out of this, you know.'

'Look, you don't understand... I don't have a choice. I never had.'

Renee glanced at her watch. 'Oh shit!' she mumbled. 'Is it already that late? Look Dean, it was nice talking to you and all, but I've got to go. I have other places to... receive customers.' She turned around and walked away. 'Thanks for the napkin, though. Goodbye.'

'Wait, hold up!' Dean exclaimed. Renee looked over her shoulder in response. 'We can talk again tomorrow if you want to. I'll be waiting!'

Renee didn't say anything for a little moment, as if she was thinking about the offer. Then she nodded. 'Sure! Thanks a lot, Dean. That... means a lot to me, really. I'll see you then!'

'Alright! And think about what I said, okay?'

'I will. Again, thank you for the napkin. Bye.'

Little did Dean realize how much Renee actually appreciated his kindness... and how terrified she was deep inside.


	6. Dark Blue

**Chapter 6**

 **Dark Blue**

She had only received one customer today and earned two-hundred dollars with that, which was why Renee Young's heart was beating like a jackhammer when she walked home tonight.

It felt like her stomach was filled with heavy stones while someone with superhuman strength was squeezing her throat shut, she was that anxious. She knew she could turn around and run away, escape Rey City if she had to, but all the violence and death threats had already sunk into her skin-deep. Like a dog would return to his owner, Renee was forced to return to him. Besides, she had nowhere else to go; she had no choice whatsoever. It wasn't her choice to move here to Rey City, to work as a prostitute and be stuck in a relationship that was beyond abusive. For a few years, it looked like life had smiled upon Renee, but during these past months her life had turned into a living nightmare. A nightmare filled with shame, disgust and non-stop sexual abuse, but let's also not forget about the physical abuse. If Renee would earn a decent amount of money on a single day, her boyfriend (or pimp, to be more accurate) wouldn't lay a finger on her. But if she would earn very little money... then all hell was going to break loose.

And today it was going to be one of those days that was going to end with violence for sure, which was exactly why Renee was so scared about returning home. She could already imagine what was going to happen as soon as she would set foot inside her apartment; her 'boyfriend' James would be waiting for her, telling her to show him the money, count it, then allow his rage to take him over and beat the living hell out of her. Yes, of course Renee tried to fight back once, but that went horribly awry. James had managed to pin her down on the ground after he punched her on the nose, pointed his pistol at her forehead and threatened that if she ever dared to do that again, that he would kill her for sure. And Renee knew he was dead serious when he said that, he had threatened her with killing her so many times, she had lost count. Renee was terrified that he would actually do it one day and she was so scared of dying, which was why she continued to do this 'work' for James.

Each day felt like a depressing song being stuck on repeat. Every morning her boyfriend/pimp would send her out of the apartment around eight o'clock, giving her some money to buy breakfast for herself since he was too lazy and unwilling to make it for her. Laziness and violence can be a dangerous combination, now that Renee thought about it. After she had her breakfast in a diner, Renee started at the top of her 'working schedule'. She would spend the morning hanging around the parking lot of a supermarket, where she would wait for her first customers. Renee dreaded receiving customers, but at the same time she didn't want to receive a brutal beating from James.

You may ask: if she spends her day unsupervised, then she can run away from all of this, right? Renee wished she could do that, she wished for nothing else, but she was too scared to do that as well. When she just started her 'job' (forced doing her 'job' may be a better way to describe), James showed her pictures of men on his cell phone, telling her that they were friends of his and that they would patrol the area she was working in, not afraid of raping her before they would kill her if she would make any attempt to escape. Renee was already so scared at that point, she immediately believed every word he said.

After hanging around at the supermarket's parking lot for a few hours and serving potential customers, Renee would walk towards the park, where she would wait at the entrance. Again, she waited for men to pick her up and pay her to take advantage of her hellish situation. Of course Renee knew about the horrifying stories about prostitutes getting hurt in the worst ways possible if they were unlucky enough to be picked up by the wrong kind of men. Some of those men would brutally rape and beat up those girls if they refused to carry out a perverted order, while other men only picked them up to kill them, fulfilling some kind of twisted desire they walked around with for God knows how long. Every time when Renee stepped inside a car of a customer, she kept those stories in the back of her head. She had nothing to fight back with if the customer would attempt to hurt her, no pepper spray, no gun, nothing. She was forced to come along with a total stranger who could be able of hurting her in some way, but it looked like James couldn't care less about that.

Whenever a customer would stop the car at an abandoned place like an empty beach or near a run-down factory, paid sex was going to be unenviable. Each customer was more repulsive than the other; Renee really didn't want to have sex with any of them, she would rather die than have any of those men inside her body, but she had no choice. It was either earning money or getting a bullet of James' pistol put through her head. Today she had only received one customer and she was convinced that he was an alcoholic; he reeked of whiskey, the smell was so strong that it almost made her gag. Thank God he at least used a condom when he entered her. Each time when Renee was forced to have sex with a man, she used her own way to keep her mind off the situation. She would count to ten over and over again, until the customer was done with using her body to satisfy his lust. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't; whenever her tactic didn't work, she just prayed to God that the customer would soon finish and cease the sexual abuse.

When it was halfway afternoon, Renee would walk to an alley near a popular bar; drunk men were easier to be tempted into paying her for one-sided sex. At five o'clock, her 'work day' would be over and she was allowed to go back home to James, who would take the money she had earned from her. Then the day would either end with a beating or her boyfriend/pimp nodding in approval and telling her to cook dinner, which he was also too lazy for to make. No matter how many times Renee would wash herself before going to sleep, she was unable to rinse off the touches of the men of her body.

Every day felt the same... but today, something different happened.

After the alcoholic man had dropped her off at her spot for the afternoon, she couldn't help but let the disgust and shame wash over her. She felt so dirty, so damn dirty... It was enough for her to burst into tears. That's when that man approached and comforted her. If you'd ask Renee, she thought the man looked somewhat threatening at first. He had slightly messy, short, brown hair, piercing blue eyes and was wearing a black leather jacket, black shirt and a pair of old jeans. His shoes looked like he had worn them for years. He looked like a mean dog, like her late grandma would say. But despite his looks, the man was actually kind towards her. Much to Renee's surprise, he didn't want to have sex with her, which relieved her a bit somehow. He had introduced himself as Dean. It had been such a long time since Renee had received any kind of kindness, it almost felt foreign to her. Why did he want to talk to her? Nobody wants anything to do with a prostitute... at least, that's what she thought. But it looked like the fact that she was a prostitute didn't bother Dean a bit, he was still willing to talk to her. It made her... feel like a human being instead of a lust object. Renee actually would've loved to talk to Dean more, but it was too late for that. When she left, she secretly hoped Dean was speaking the truth when he told her that he would be waiting for her.

But right now, she had to worry about something else.

The wrath of James.

After a fifteen-minute walk, Renee arrived at the apartment complex where she and the man who was supposed to love and care for her lived. From the outside you could already see that living there was cheap, which was true. Some of the apartment complexes here in Rey City were in such an old state that people with a low income were easily tempted to move to this place. This was probably why James wanted them to live in this city when he tricked her into moving in together. Taking a deep, anxious breath, Renee entered the apartment complex.

Inside the hallway, she was immediately greeted with the familiar smell of mold. She could hear a toddler crying in one of the apartments on this floor, followed by a loud, angry female voice, most likely telling the child to shut up. There was always such a dreary atmosphere inside this apartment complex, Renee couldn't stand it.

She lived on the second floor. The elevator was out for years, nobody ever dropped by in order to fix it. Like many times before, Renee took the stairs. The military green carpet that covered the stairs were covered in dark, unidentifiable stains. While Renee got closer and closer to the second floor, she could feel the 'stones' in her stomach becoming heavier and heavier. God, this was one of the most agonizing feelings in the world, she just wanted to cry right now.

Renee reached the second floor she was on the verge of throwing up, she was that scared. With her legs feeling heavier with each step, she walked towards the apartment's front door. Her hand was clenching around the key inside the pocket of her coat so hard, it almost made the hard material dig into her skin. Renee's hand trembled when she stuck the key inside the keyhole, opening the door with a soft click. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

'About fucking time you showed up.'

James, a tall man with dirty blonde hair that reached his shoulders and sporting a stubble that hadn't been shaved for two days, was lying on the worn-down couch, staring right at Renee, holding a half-full beer bottle in his hand. Oh dear God no, he had been drinking, she realized. Alcohol only made him even more violent, she knew that for a fact. James took another sip of his beer before he got up from the couch and walked towards Renee, who was practically trembling at this point.

'But... I have come home just in time, right?' she asked with a slightly shaking voice. 'Five o'clock, just like you-'

'Yeah yeah, whatever.' James rudely interrupted her. 'Just show me what you have earned today.'

Renee bit her lower lip and stared at the ground, too scared to look him straight in the eyes... which only angered James. 'I said: show me what you've earned, Renee...!' he hissed.

On the verge of puking her heart out, Renee retrieved the two hundred dollar bills out of the pocket of her coat. James immediately snatched them out of her hand and stared at them, his eyes widening with disbelief and anger. 'Don't tell me... this is all you fucking got?!'

Renee squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. 'Yes.' she managed to squeak out.

For a moment it was completely quiet inside the apartment.

'You stupid fucking bitch!' James yelled at the top of his lungs before punching Renee in the face with full force. The world around her violently when the impact hit her, causing her to lose her balance and fall on the ground. Oh God, this was exactly what she was afraid of...

Lying on the ground, Renee felt her left cheek burning with agonizing pain. 'James... don't...' she whimpered.

But James wasn't done with her yet. He pulled her up by her hair, earning a scream of pain from her.

'How dare you doing this to me!' he shouted, slapping her in the face. Her left cheek had colored bright red by now.

'You're worthless!' Another slap followed, this time with the back of his hand.

'You're just a filthy cum-dumpster!' The last slap knocked Renee to the floor once again.

The pain was so immense, it made her face almost feel numb. Suddenly, a rain of kicks fell down upon her. James kicked her on every spot he could, making sure she would suffer more pain. Each kick felt like a hit from a sledgehammer. Renee covered her face and screamed in pain, praying to God that this would stop soon; not even counting to ten was going to ease this.

Suddenly the kicking stopped, leaving Renee a trembling, sobbing mess. Dark blue bruises were sure to appear on her body the next day.

'That'll teach you for being a dumb bitch...' James panted. 'Now get up and make me dinner. Pronto.' He walked away from her, not even bothering to help her up, and lied back down on the couch.

Lying on the ground, Renee wondered if she would ever escape from this hell.


	7. The Sad Story Of Renee

**Chapter 7**

 **The Sad Story Of Renee**

The bench he slept on last night caused his back to ache, but Dean was convinced that the beds in prison were even less comfortable.

That morning the escaped criminal woke up with a huge pain in his back, but he knew that there were worse kinds of pain you'd experience in life. No, he was not going to let himself get arrested because of a painful spine; that would be possibly one of the most humiliating ways for a fugitive to get caught. The only thing that came close to sheltering Dean from the cold last night was his leather jacket, but that didn't help too much. He felt like a homeless, curled up on that bench and trying to get some sleep like that. Dean eventually did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep.

No, he had miserably failed to find a proper place to stay for the night. There wasn't a single hotel, motel or inn in this godforsaken city that allowed him to sleep in one of their rooms for a night without paying, which was kind of expectable. But it wasn't the only thing that Dean failed to accomplish; he had also failed to find his dinner. When he scavenged the garbage cans near a restaurant in the hope of finding something edible, his hopes of getting a proper dinner (or at least what came close to that description) were crushed into dust when he found out that most of the food was rotten. His appetite was immediately ruined when he saw a fat rat gnawing on a piece of chicken, thus resulting him going to sleep with an empty stomach. The park was the only place he could stay for free, he had no choice.

Now that he was awake, Dean felt how hungry he actually was. He wondered for how long he had been sleeping. Checking the large clock that was installed in the middle of the park, Dean saw that it was half past nine; it surprised him that he had managed to get so much sleep despite the cold and the uncomfortable bench. Dean was pretty sure people who passed him by must've given him disgusted look, mistaking him for a homeless.

But despite the constant rumbling noise in his stomach, Dean didn't want to get something to eat just yet... because he was afraid he would miss out on meeting Renee.

It sounded strange, but he actually looked forward to seeing her again. There was something about the prostitute that he couldn't put his finger on, he found it hard to describe it. Perhaps it was the fact that she made him want to help her; offering her his napkin to dry her tears with was a small random act of kindness, but it felt like it eased her pain, even if it was just for a little bit. That's why Dean hung around at the entrance of the park, patiently waiting for her. After all, he had told Renee that he would wait for her. God, he never thought it would ever come to this, waiting for a prostitute. While he waited for her, Dean would often look around to see if he saw any police car.

Then, after a whole hour, the escaped criminal saw a feminine figure wearing a white faux-fur coat approaching the entrance of the park. That had to be her! This was proven right when Dean got a good view on Renee's face. Walking towards him, she blinked her eyes in surprise.

'Holy crap... You... you actually waited for me?' Renee asked with a soft voice.

Dean grinned and nodded. 'Told you I would do that. Good morning to you too, by the way.'

'Oh, r-right...' the prostitute replied, understanding the awkwardness of this. 'Good morning. I'm sorry, but this really surprises me, you know... I mean, really... You've kept your word, you weren't joking... It's so weird.'

'What's so weird about keeping your word?'

'No, it's not that, it's just that you actually spend your time waiting for me... I mean, you could've done so many other things, yet you decided to wait for me, like you said. But why? I'm a complete stranger, why would you do that? Just look at me, I'm a prostitute... isn't there-'

Renee abruptly stopped speaking when she caught Dean staring at her collarbone. She knew immediately why he must've been staring; this morning she woke up with a hideous, big, dark blue bruise on her chest, it was one of the many bruises caused by the beating she had received from James yesterday. She had tried to cover them up with make-up, but it turned out it didn't cover the bruises well enough. Biting her lower lip, Renee pulled a part of her coat over the bruise in an attempt to hide it, but Dean had already seen it.

He pointed at her collarbone. 'How did that happen?' he asked.

'It's... it's nothing, really.' Renee didn't have the courage to tell him the true story behind the bruise; her situation brought a strong kind of shame along with it. 'I bumped against a lamppost on my way home, I didn't-'

'Don't lie to me, Renee.'

The prostitute blinked her eyes in surprise. What? How did he know she was making this up?

'I can tell when someone's lying to me, so you're not going to fool me. I have known women like you throughout my entire life and let me tell you something, those women had often the same injuries you have right now and they also said they got them because of some dumb accident, but in the end, those bruises were all caused by the hands of one son of a bitch... Your pimp did this to you, am I right?'

Renee didn't say a word. Looking away, she sighed. Fuck, he had seen right through her... she was so embarrassed to admit this, but there was no way to deny this.

'Yes...'

'You want to tell me why he did it?'

'I... I didn't earn enough money yesterday. He will always find an excuse to beat me up.'

Dean shook his head. That was absolutely fucking despicable. His mother was not exactly the type of woman to ever win the 'Mother Of The Year' award, but if there was at least one valuable lesson she had taught her son, is that you had to treat a woman with respect (unless she would cheat on you with your colleague).

'Then why don't you leave that bastard?'

'I can't... It's far too late for that.'

'What do you-' Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise emerged from Dean's empty stomach, reminding him how hungry he actually was.

'Are you hungry?' Renee asked, finding the perfect opportunity to change the subject.

Dean softly chuckled. 'Well, you could say that again... let's just say that finding something to eat is quite hard if you don't have any money.'

Renee glanced at the ground, as if she was lost in thoughts. 'How about I buy you breakfast?' she suddenly offered. 'I know this diner around here where they have some really delicious food. I always eat my breakfast there, but I'm not hungry.' It was true; Renee was everything but hungry, mainly because the first two customers she received this morning at the parking lot of the supermarket were enough to make her sick to her stomach.

Dean frowned for a moment, but then nodded. 'Alright then. If you insist.'

* * *

Renee had never seen someone eating breakfast in the way Dean did.

As soon as the plate with bacon, eggs and beans and the glass of fresh orange juice were put down on the table, the man feasted on his breakfast like a hungry wolf, not even taking his time to swallow down a chewed-up mouthful before taking the next bite. He was damn hungry, you could clearly see that.

The diner was half-full, most of the people who visited this place were here to eat their breakfast or just want to drink a cup of coffee before going to work. When they had entered the diner, Renee dearly hoped there wouldn't be a customer she was forced to serve during these past months. But for now, it seemed that the coast was clear, which pleased her very much.

Dean finally took his time to swallow down his food and nodded. 'Yup, you were right. It really is some good grub.'

Renee smiled a bit awkwardly. She had never expected to buy breakfast for a man who was surprisingly willing to talk to her despite her 'job'. Having contact with Dean... reminded her that she was still a human being, somehow. 'Glad to hear that.' she replied.

'Do you want some?' Dean asked. 'I would feel like a total asshole if you wouldn't eat something, seriously.'

'No no, it's fine, really.' Renee shook her head. 'I will get something in the afternoon, don't worry about that.'

'You sure about that?'

'Yeah, I'm sure.'

Dean took a gulp from his glass of orange juice. 'Say, I have been wondering about something...' he said. 'How the hell did you end up like this? I mean, I'm not going to lie, you are a very pretty woman, you could have had way better opportunities when it comes to work and other stuff. And yet you are here in this shithole of a city, having a job you fucking despise and stuck with an abusive bastard of a pimp. Why is that? I'm curious.'

Renee stared at the table, as if she was considering telling him her story. She barely knew this guy and her life story was very personal to her, but then again, it would feel so good to share it with somebody... even if it was with a stranger. Renee decided to do it.

'When I was eight years old, my parents both died in a car crash.' she spoke. 'I refused to believe that they were dead when I was told what had happened, I guess something like that is very hard for a girl from that age to accept. After their funeral I moved in with my grandmother, she was the only family I had left. My grandma was pretty old-fashioned when it came to parenting. I always had to do my chores and homework first before going out with friends, I had to be home at a certain time, a bad grade would result me going to bed without dinner, you know, that kind of stuff. Anyway, when I graduated from high school, my grandma had saved up enough money for me to go to college. I have always wanted to be an interviewer, so I chose to study for that. During my college years, I got to know James while attending a party one night. God, he was so charming, so nice... He wasn't getting many good grades and was a bit of a rebel, but I loved him either way. I think that's what made him so attractive for me. When I reached my last year of college, my grandmother suddenly passed away. I was all alone, I had no family left... but James was there for me, he always was. After I graduated from college, we moved to Rey City together to work on a future. I could've pictured it all, I thought it was going to be fantastic. Everything seemed so perfect... that was until the night that James told me that I was going to earn money for him. At first I thought he was joking, but from the moment he pressed the tip of his pistol against my head... that's when my life turned into a living hell. I have been doing this work for him for the last couple of months and there isn't a day that doesn't go by that I wish for all of this to be over. I just want to throw up whenever I'm with a customer, James has threatened me and beaten me up so many times that I have lost count. I... I never wanted this life...'

Renee had remained fairly calm while she told her life story, but her voice broke when she spoke those last words. Covering her face with both hands, Renee let out a sad sigh.

There it was again. That connection he felt yesterday. Just like her, life had totally fucked Dean over. Hell, life might have fucked her over even harder. At least she had a chance of a proper future, something Dean had thrown away a long time. If she had never met that bastard James, she would've probably been shining on millions of TV-screens in the United States, her dream of becoming an interviewer would've come true, she could've hired by the biggest news channels. She didn't have a choice about her life turning out like this and it was all James' fault. Dean damned him to Hell; this beautiful woman right here could've made her dreams come true and he had snatched it all away from her.

Dean felt nothing but pity for Renee... something he hadn't felt for any person in a while.

Suddenly, the door of the diner opened and a chubby man in his late forties stepped inside. He noticed the two of them sitting at the table, stared at the prostitute for a brief moment, blinked his eyes, then grinned from ear to ear. Dean didn't like that grin for one bit; it looked mocking to him. The man walked towards the table, the grin refused to leave his face.

'Hey, I know you...' he said.

Renee looked up and softly gasped. Her cheeks colored red with shame.

'You're that whore who hangs around the park every day, aren't you?' the man asked, loud enough for everyone else who was in the diner to hear him. 'Ah yes, now I remember you! You were the one who gave me a blowjob a week ago near the beach! Ha, I didn't know hookers have enough class to eat at a place like this! I bet fucking guys all day long must've made you hungry. Say, how about you spend your time wisely and give me another blowjob in my car right now?'

Then the man focused his attention on Dean. 'Damn buddy, you must feel damn lonely to have breakfast with a cum-dumpster like her. I wonder how much money you have given her-'

In the blink of an eye, Dean had gotten up from his seat and punched the man right in the face with all the strength he had. The sound of his nose being shattered into dozens of pieces could be heard in the entire diner. The man let out a howl of pain, but Dean wasn't done just yet. This piece of shit had to pay for every word he said. He punched him in the face over and over again, not even feeling the skin on his knuckles bursting. He slammed the man's eyes shut, coloring his eyelids blue. Then he abruptly stopped punching him and grabbed him by the jaw, forcing him to look at Renee. The prostitute was slightly startled by the man's beaten face. A thick stream of blood emerged from his nostrils, covering his mouth. He was unable to open his eyes.

'Apologize to her.' Dean hissed. But he didn't get the response he wanted, the man only managed to groan in pain.

'I said: apologize to her!' Dean bellowed. Everyone in the diner was staring at him in shock at this point, but he couldn't care less about that. He wanted this son of a bitch to apologize to Renee for talking to her like that.

'Alright, alright!' the man whimpered. 'I'm... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...'

He got what he wanted. Dean let go of the man, who immediately collapsed to the floor. A small pool of blood grew near his nose. Dean looked up and saw the faces of the customers; they all expressed nothing more but complete awe.

It was very likely the owners were going to call the cops for this. Time to get out of here.

'Come on Renee.' he said calmly. 'Let's get out of here. I'm done eating.'

Renee was just as much in shock as everyone else was, she didn't say anything but quickly nodded. She left a few dollar bills on the table, got up and followed Dean, exiting the diner together.


	8. Make Up Your Mind

**Chapter 8**

 **Make Up Your Mind**

Even outside the diner, Renee could still barely comprehend what had just happened inside.

She had gone from wishing to disappear into thin air to entering a state of mild shock when she witnessed Dean beating the man who had humiliated her in front of everyone. She had caught one last glimpse of the man, who was still lying on the ground, before making their escape. He was left as a bloody, beaten mess, whimpering in pain and unable to look at them. Renee was sure as hell that he would think twice before he was about to humiliate someone next time.

They didn't stop walking until Dean made sure they were far away enough from the diner. He was convinced that the owners or one of the customers must've called the police by now. Fuck, he didn't think about that for one moment while he punched that bastard's face into a pulp. Just like with that fucking bitch of a wife and his scumbag friend, Dean didn't regret what he had done. Renee was about to burst into tears after telling her saddening story to him, he could see on her face that it must have been so hard for her to do so. Despite the fact that she had lost both her parents and lived with a ridiculously strict grandma, she had a bright future ahead of her. She could've had a successful career as an interviewer, she could've had it all... but now, her life was marked with sexual and most likely physical abuse, all because of that bastard James.

And then that piece of shit showed up and had to make those vile, disgusting words to her. Dean had to make him pay for that mistake.

'Are you alright?' he asked when they stopped walking. The two were a few blocks away from the diner.

'I should be the one asking you...' Renee said, pointing at Dean's burst knuckles. The wounds looked so painful, it almost made her cringe. 'Jesus, Dean, look at your hands! They must hurt like hell!'

Dean inspected the back of his hands and stared at his knuckles for a little moment. Then he carelessly shrugged. 'I've had worse, trust me. It's nothing.' It was true, Dean had suffered far more worse injuries during a fight than some ripped skin on his knuckles. He didn't deny it, he had been in lots of fights during his entire life, especially in his teenage years. Most of his opponents were bullies from the playground of his school and scumbags who hang around in the neighborhood, there was no way in hell Dean would ever back down for them. As a result, he often ended up in raw, brutal fights where nobody held back. Dean would almost always win, but it was bound that he would claim in victory with painful injuries. A broken nose, a black eye, you name it, he had experienced them all; Dean even ended up with a concussion one time. That concussion was caused by his father, who wanted to teach his son a little lesson for attempting to prevent him from beating his mother during one of their many fights.

'You sure about that?'

'Yeah, don't worry about it.'

'My God... I really can't believe you have beaten up that guy.' Renee shook her head in slight disbelief. 'No man has ever done that for me.'

'That bastard deserved what was coming to him. He had no right to talk about you like that.'

Renee looked away for a few seconds, then looked back at Dean. 'What you have done was really messed up, but... I really appreciate it that you stood up for me. Thanks for that.'

She was a complete stranger for him and yet he was willing to beat the living hell out of that man for her. It was strange, but... Renee felt kind of flattered by this. Flattered may be a big word, but it was the best way she could describe it. If she had been with James, he wouldn't have bothered to stand up for her. Hell, he might've even told Renee to come along with the guy. But Dean... he was different. So far he had been treating her fairly well, he was willing to listen to her life story and he hadn't been rude to her once. It had been such a long time since Renee had been treated well...

Dean nodded, glad that the young woman appreciated what he had done. When he thought about it, she might've been the first person to ever appreciate him beating someone up. 'You're welcome. But I hate to break this news to you Renee, but... I'm not going to stay here in Rey City much longer. I'll be leaving soon enough.'

Renee blinked her eyes in surprise. 'W-what? But why? Why now?'

'Those people back in the diner may have called the cops already, so I have to make a run for it. And let's just say that I'm not really in the mood to spend my ass behind bars. But you don't have to stay here, you know... You can still get away from James, the prostitution, this shithole of a city, everything. You can leave that all behind and start a whole new life. You still have a whole freaking life ahead of you, Renee! So, what do you say... do you want to come with me?'

The prostitute widened her hazel eyes before rapidly blinking them once again. Hundreds of thoughts went through her mind at once. This was her chance, she realized. This was her chance to escape, Dean's offer was her key to escape her cage with bars made of forced sex and abuse. But when she was about to reach out to that 'key', her hand stuttered. She could hear all the death threats James had made echoing through her head, filling up every empty spot. To this day, she was highly convinced that his 'friends' were indeed watching her, waiting for her to try and escape so that they could rape and kill her. James had threatened her so many times to put a bullet through her head, stab her with the kitchen knife until her veins ran dry, strangle her until her throat crushed under the pressure, suffocate her with a pillow, drown her in the bathtub, each threat sounded more chilling and convincing than the other. And let's not forget about all the violence he had used on her. Every time when James let his rage loose upon her, she was convinced that she would die. Renee was convinced that James was finally going to make those threats come true when she would try to escape with Dean.

The threats and violence had sunk into her skin-deep...

'I... I can't.' Renee muttered with a soft voice. 'It's too late for me.'

Dean frowned his eyebrows. 'What do you mean, it's too late for you? Don't you want to get away from all-'

'You don't get it, do you?' Renee interrupted him. Her voice had become louder and angry. 'Don't you see it? I'm stuck here, Dean! I can't leave! I want to escape, believe me when I say that, but if I do, James' friends will come after me and kill me! God knows, maybe they will bring me to James so he can finish me off! I want to go, Dean... but I can't. I don't want to die...'

Dean didn't say anything for a moment as he stared at the ground. Renee wondered if she had angered him by declining his offer, but even if he was angry, she had told him the truth. Then Dean looked back at her.

'So you'd rather want to stay here, get fucked and humiliated by those pigs and get the shit beaten out of you by your pimp over and over again than going with me and start a new life?'

Renee bit her lower lip, thinking about her answer. But just before she could reply the question, Dean had already opened his mouth to speak.

'Alright. I'm going to give you a choice. I want us to meet again tomorrow and by that time, Renee, I want you to make up your mind. And I want you to seriously think about it. It's very simple. You either come along with me and get away from all of this, or you stay here and continue to live your life like it is until the day you die. Do you understand?'

Renee nodded. 'Yeah.'

'Good. Look, I've got to run now. Just think about what I said, okay? Goodbye, Renee. And thanks for the breakfast.'

Then Dean turned around and quickly walked away, just when the sound of police sirens could be heard from afar, leaving Renee with possibly the most important decision of her life.

* * *

She continued her day like usual, but even while she served her customers for today, Dean's words didn't leave Renee's mind for a second.

For this one day she didn't count to ten over and over again whenever a customer used her body to satisfy his lust. Her physical body may still be here, but inside Renee's mind, she had already ran off, far away from James, Rey City and her work. She did want to escape, she wanted nothing else, but it was the suffocating fear that kept her here. James had her in full control, that became painfully clear now.

Could she even fully trust Dean? Sure, he presented himself as someone who seemed to care about her despite her reputation, her knight in shining armor who would lift her on the back of his white horse and dash off with her into the sunset, but that's exactly how James acted too in the beginning of their relationship. Renee just didn't know what to think. She wanted to leave, but she was too scared to do so.

Today she had earned seven hundred dollars, an amount of money James would be very pleased with. Renee clenched the dollar bills in the pocket of her coat when she walked home at five o'clock. She didn't feel too scared now since she had collected a fair amount, so James would most likely spare her a beating now. Renee could already imagine how it would go; he would stare at the dollar bills, grin from ear to ear, nod in approval and tell Renee to go cook dinner for him afterwards. If he would act like that, the day would at least end better than the days where he would punch and kick her until he was convinced she had suffered enough pain. There was no way in hell Renee would ever tell him what was going on in her mind, though. Yes, she had been thinking about what Dean had said to her, she had been thinking about it all day long.

Just like always, she was greeted with the smell of mold when she entered the apartment complex. Renee highly doubted someone would ever show up to clean the place around here while she walked up the stairs. In the distance, she heard that someone had turned up the volume of a TV as loud as possible, almost overlapping the sound of knocking against a walling and the angry voice of an old lady telling the person to keep it down.

Renee let out a tired sigh when she stuck the key of the apartment inside the lock of the door; she was pretty sure Dean's offer would keep her up at night. She opened the door, expecting her boyfriend/pimp waiting for her on the couch... but the living room was empty.

'James?' Renee asked, locking the door behind her. That's strange, he would normally-

A blow to the side of her head made the world around her look like it was caught in a massive earthquake. Pain filled every spot inside her head when Renee lost her balance and fell on the ground, the pain was enough to make her sight temporarily go black. Renee managed to dart her eyes up; through the fading black spots, she saw James staring right back at her, his eyes showing nothing but rage.

'Who the hell was that guy you went into that diner with, Renee...?!' he hissed furiously.

Renee attempted to answer back, but she was only able to let out a frightened whimper. Oh God... did he follow her?!

'Was he a cop?' But when Renee was still unable to answer his question, James raised his foot as if he was about to stomp her. 'Was he a fucking cop?!'

'No, he wasn't!' Renee screamed hysterically.

The answer wasn't enough to cool James' burning rage. His foot hit Renee's hip with full force, making her wail in pain.

'You are supposed to fuck men, not have goddamn breakfast with them!' James shouted. 'Is this how you spend my money, you stupid bitch?! Do you think I hadn't seen everything! I wanted to make sure you were doing your job properly, so that's why I followed you for a while! I have seen everything, I have seen you two talking! What were you fucking talking about?!'

'Nothing... we were talking about nothing, I promise...!'

'Lying bitch... you stupid lying bitch!'

James kicked Renee over and over again as hard as he could. The only thing the poor woman could do was curling herself into a fetus position, cover her head and scream in pain, hoping that the neighbors would finally work up the courage to call the police. She was sure that they knew about her situation, but were too scared (or just didn't care) to help her.

James suddenly stopped kicking, catching his breath for a moment. He stared down at his beaten girlfriend/victim and couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth into a sinister grin. Just look at her, lying on the floor, curled up and sobbing in pain. So pathetic, so worthless, so vulnerable... it was enough to make something perverted well up inside him.

This would be the perfect punishment for this bitch.

He grabbed Renee by the hair and dragged her across the living room. She desperately tried to pry herself free and get away from him, but it was no use; James was much stronger than her. He had always been stronger than her. To her horror, Renee noticed that he was dragging her to the bedroom.

Oh God...

Was he...

Inside the bedroom, James forced Renee onto her feet and threw her on top of the bed. His grin only grew larger when he pulled down the zipper of his pants.

It didn't last long before muffled sobbing and the sound of a creaking bed filled the apartment.


	9. Blood On The Carpet

**Chapter 9**

 **Blood On The Carpet**

It was like a thick, white mist filled up Renee's head when she headed towards the park the following day; it was almost impossible to break through to that 'mist'. It also prevented her of getting any sleep last night, plus the fact that she was afraid that James would do it all over again if she dared to close her eyes.

He had never taken the abuse this far... Renee couldn't believe this had happened. Never in her entire life, she thought it would ever come to this. A sharp pain inside her made her briefly snap out of the 'mist' before diving back in head-first. James must have torn something inside her, it had to be. She remembered she only bled on the day where she lost her virginity, but despite the fact that she hadn't been a virgin for years, she noticed she had been bleeding again after her boyfriend/pimp was done with her. James had left her lying on the bed, leaving her to be swallowed up by shock, pain and helplessness.

A painful shiver ran up Renee's spine; the horrific memory refused to leave her alone, she was sure that she would never forget this for as long as she would live. James, the man she loved so much during her college years, the man who had tricked her and forced her to work for him, had mercilessly raped her... all because she had been talking to Dean. Renee had never felt so dirty in her entire life. When she finally got off the bed yesterday she had locked herself up in the bathroom for hours, desperately attempting to wash off the dirty feeling of her body, but no matter how hard she scrubbed, Renee was unable to rinse off the pain and humiliation. More bruises would appear on her skin the next morning. It looked like James wanted her to remember the 'lesson' she had learned, because before Renee left, he told her that he would do it all over again if she ever dared to talk to Dean.

Even though this had to be one of the worst things that had ever happened to her, Renee didn't feel like crying. She wanted to cry, but a single teardrop wouldn't trickle down her cheek. Was it perhaps too horrible to cry about? That was very likely. Or perhaps she had just run out of tears to cry...

Renee was convinced that James was stalking her when she walked to the parking lot at the supermarket at first, which is why she constantly looked around her while she was standing there; however, she didn't catch a glimpse of his car. No customers showed up there.

But while Renee lied awake in bed last night, she had finally made her decision. And she was planning to tell it to Dean as soon as they would meet again.

She dearly hoped he was there at the park. Up until now, she had felt completely empty, but she was sure about her decision. In the distance, Renee spotted a man with slightly messy brown hair and a black leather coat standing near the entrance of the park. Dean. Renee wished her heart could skip a beat at this moment, but it couldn't.

Dean immediately knew something was up from the moment he caught a glimpse of Renee's face. It was so pale, as if she had seen the ghosts of her parents and grandmother... or maybe because that bastard James had done something horrible to her.

'Hey Dean...' the prostitute said once she reached him. Listening to her voice convinced Dean that there was indeed something up; she was talking so soft, as if she was afraid that her voice would break if she would speak any louder.

'Something happened, didn't it?' he asked. This question just had to be asked.

Damn it, it was just like he had seen right through her. Renee stared at her feet, searching for words to say. Something did indeed happen... and she was sure she would never forget this. 'Well... uhm...' Of course Renee wanted to tell Dean about what James had done to her, but she never thought it would be so damn hard to talk about her rape.

'James has something to do with it, am I right about that?' Dean could feel in his bones that James had done something to her.

There, the truth was out. Still staring at the brown suede of her boots, Renee nodded. 'When... when I came... home last night... James attacked me and claimed that he had seen the both of us in that diner. He was infuriated, I have never seen him that angry before. And then... he took me to the bedroom and then... then... then he...' God, it was impossible to tell him this, this felt so humiliating. Renee clenched her eyes shut as she felt tears burning in her eyes; only now she was able to cry.

'What did that bastard do, Renee? Come on, you can tell me...' Dean put his hands on her shoulders and gently squeezed them, like he was trying to convince her that it was alright to tell him... or to make her feel safe. But despite the kind-looking gesture, a faint, sickening feeling developed inside his stomach.

'He... He raped me...' Renee replied. Her voice finally broke and she softly sobbed, covering her face with her hands.

Dean could feel his heart pounding in his head; the loud sound of his beating heart blocked out every other sound around him, including Renee's sobbing. A red mist slowly clouded his sight, almost completely blinding him. Dean knew exactly what this meant. He was going to be mad, no mad wasn't the right description; he was going to be fucking pissed. James had hurt Renee in the worst ways possible, he had tricked her into working for him, he beat her up, he forced her to fuck total strangers for money... and now this had gone beyond abuse. He had to pay for this, that fucking bastard had to pay for everything he had done to her!

' That fucker...' Dean hissed. Small droplets of spit escaped from his mouth. 'That filthy fucker!'

Renee looked up and was nearly startled by the sight; Dean looked like he was about to murder somebody, he looked that angry.

'Listen to me now, Dean...' she said, wiping away her tears. 'I have been thinking about what you said and... I'm going with you. I want to get out of here, but I'm going to need your help. I want to make sure that James will not be able to follow us. Will you help me with that?' Even Renee was surprised about how calm she was sounding right now, but she knew exactly why she sounded like that; she was determined about her decision.

Despite the rage boiling inside him, Dean nodded. 'Yeah.' he replied. 'Yeah, I will.'

'Let's go to my apartment tonight, James will possibly become suspicious if I would show up at home right now.'

'Right. What do you want me to do?'

On that moment, Renee looked Dean dead in the eyes. The rape may have been the most horrific thing she had ever experienced in her entire life, but at the same time, it unleashed something inside her. And that something thirsted for revenge.

'I want you to make him regret everything he has ever done to me.'

* * *

From the outside, Renee looked perfectly calm, but from the inside the adrenaline was filling up every vein inside her body. She had received no customers today; normally on days like these she would dread the fury of James, but today she no longer feared him. Once this was over, she would finally be free from his iron grip that had held her in place for months.

There was no turning back.

Once you have made up your mind, you have to stick with it, like her grandmother would say. Renee was pretty sure this also counted for what she was planning right now. Now that she had Dean on her side, she almost felt completely fearless. Dean looked like a strong guy, she was sure he was going to be a good help. Thanks to him, she had finally worked up the courage to make that one attempt. The attempt to earn back her freedom.

Together with Dean, she walked towards the apartment complex. It was five o'clock, they both had been waiting for this moment for the whole day. Renee wanted James to suffer, just like he had let her suffer during these months; she wanted him to feel what she had felt. When they were done with him, she wanted him to stay out of her life forever. She had never thought it would ever come to this; she used to be so in love with him back in college, he had been nothing more but sweet to her, especially when her grandmother had suddenly died. But that kindness might have very well been a part of his plan all along, Renee had realized that a long time ago. It was his kindness he used to trick her; it was very likely that he had been planning to use her for money from the very beginning.

But now, if everything went well, Renee would escape from James' control this evening.

Standing in front of the apartment complex, Renee could swear that she had never felt her heart beating that fast. Dean could see that she was starting to get nervous, he saw that she was gently biting her lower lip.

'Don't be nervous, okay?' he said. 'That bastard is going to get what he deserves, I'm going to make sure of that.'

Renee looked at him and nodded. 'Let's go.'

They both entered the apartment complex, where they were both greeted with the strong smell of mold; Renee hoped this would be last time she would ever smell that disgusting stench. However, Dean wasn't really that moved by the gross state of the apartment complex at all. Hell, this is actually how he kind of expected the interior to look like; it reminded him of the place where he used to live when he was a kid.

'I live on the second floor.' Renee said. 'We have to use the stairs though, the elevator has been out for God knows how long.'

As they got closer to the second floor, it became almost impossible for Renee to stay calm. There was no doubt that James was going to fight back, but this time she was going to fight back as well, together with Dean. They arrived on the second floor and with a few more steps, they were standing in front of the apartment's door.

Renee took a deep breath and slowly breathed out. She glanced at Dean, who gave her an encouraging nod.

'Let's do this.' he said.

Renee retrieved the apartment's key out of her pocket and stuck it into the lock. With one twist, she opened the door and they entered the apartment.

There was James, lying on the couch as usual. He looked up when he heard the door opening, but widened his eyes in surprise when he saw Dean standing next to his girlfriend/victim. Of course he recognized him, it was that same guy he saw entering the diner with Renee yesterday.

'What the fuck is this, Renee?' James asked as he felt the first sparks of rage inside him. He got up from the couch. 'What is he doing here?'

Renee didn't say anything. She closed the door behind her and the two walked towards him. 'So you must be James...' Dean replied calmly. His voice may have sounded calm, but he already had tightly clenched his fists inside the pockets of his jacket. 'Renee has told me quite a lot about you. Glad that I can finally meet you in person.'

In the blink of an eye, Dean reached out and struck James right in the face with his fist. However, this wasn't enough for him to lose his balance, but it was however enough to make the rage inside him flare up immediately. But before James managed to strike back, Dean had already grabbed him by his shirt and tackle him to the ground. Once he got on top of him, Dean started punching James in the face with all the strength he had. The impact caused the wounds on his knuckles to tear open again, but he didn't even feel the pain. All he wanted to do was to punish this bastard for what he had done to Renee. Even though he had already broken James' nose by now, he continued to punch on it. He struck him across the mouth, causing two teeth to fly out of James' mouth. The pimp desperately tried to push him off of him, but without avail. Renee watched silently as Dean punished the man who had turned her life into a nightmare.

'Are you still so fucking tough?!' Dean shouted furiously. 'Using your own damn girlfriend as a sex slave! Forcing her to fuck other men for money! Raping her! Huh?! Are you still so goddamn tough, you piece of shit?!'

Suddenly, James launched his thumbs into Dean's eyes, causing him to stop punching him and cover his eyes with his hands. James took the opportunity and clipped a punch onto the side of Dean's face. He fell off and James quickly got on top of him, immediately wrapping his hands around Dean's throat and squeezing it shut with all the strength he had. Dean clawed at his hands, leaving deep, bloody scratches.

'I do whatever I want with her, you hear me?!' James bellowed. Droplets of saliva and blood stained Dean's face. 'I will make her fuck men for the rest of her life, I don't give a shit what happens to her, as long as I get my money! Renee's mine and I'm going to make sure her life will remain a living hell!'

'No!' Renee screamed. She ran towards James and attempted the pull him off of Dean, but he launched his elbow inside her stomach with all his strength before continuing to strangle Dean. Renee wanted to cradle her painful stomach, but she knew there was no time for that.

She had to do something.

There's a knife in the kitchen, she suddenly realized. And from that moment on, Renee felt completely empty, it was like her mind went blank. She rushed towards the kitchen, opened a drawer and grabbed a large butcher knife; it was the same knife James had threatened her with a couple of times.

It was now or never.

Renee turned around, ran back to the living room and kicked James right in the face with her foot, causing him to see black spots and fall off of Dean. He rolled onto his side and gasped for air. Meanwhile, James widened his eyes in horror when he saw Renee holding the butcher knife. He backed away in a pathetic attempt to escape his fate.

'No... wait, Renee... Put that knife away! Goddamn it, wait! Renee! Renee!'

She had begged too whenever he was about to abuse her... and just like James, Renee was deaf for the pleas. The tables had turned; now he was the helpless, pathetic, sad excuse of a human being.

Renee knelt down next to James and raised the knife in the air. She didn't feel anything but the will to end this all.

You never forget your first time, they say. And Renee would never forget this.

James let out a bloodcurdling scream when the knife came down and pierced his stomach, tearing open his organs and muscles. A pool of blood immediately emerged from the deep wound. Renee pulled the knife and stabbed him again, causing more blood to come out. But Renee wasn't done yet; she wasn't satisfied with stabbing this bastard only two times. The only color Renee saw was the color red when she plunged the blade inside James' stomach over and over again while her mind still remained blank. The screams of pain slowly turned into a strange bubbling noise as a thick stream of blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. It was like Renee no longer had any control over her arms, she just kept on stabbing and stabbing. It didn't last long before her sight would turn completely red.

'Renee!' a voice called out to her, making her snap out of her murderous trance. It was Dean.

'You can stop now, he's already dead!'

Renee rapidly blinked her eyes and looked down. She let out a loud gasp. Dozens of stab wounds decorated James' abdomen, his t-shirt that had been white a moment ago had colored red. A pool of blood had formed around his dead body, absorbed by the carpet underneath him. James' face had turned into a horrific death mask, his eyes were rolled into the back of his skull as blood continued to trickle out of his mouth. Blood stains covered Renee's clothes and hands.

Oh God... did she do this?!

She dropped the bloody butcher knife. The world around her felt like spinning, she could feel her breathing rapidly quickening. She was on the verge of hyperventilating, Dean realized.

'Renee, calm down.' he said, rubbing her on the back. 'You have to breathe normally or you're going to faint. Look at me, Renee. Listen to me, look at me, okay? Just calm down.'

Renee looked at Dean and managed to catch a grip on her breathing. His hand rubbing on her back helped her calming down. The world around her stopped spinning, thank God. Her breathing went back to normal.

'We've... got to get out of here...' she panted.

'You're damn right we do.' Dean replied. 'Go grab whatever you need. Clothes, make-up, money, you're going to need it. But hurry up, we don't have much time.'

Renee nodded, got up on her feet and ran towards her bedroom. It felt like the ground had ceased to exist, she didn't even feel her feet touching the floor whenever she took a step. But before she wanted to open the bedroom door, Renee changed her mind and went to the bathroom. There she twisted the knob of the tap and rinsed off the blood of her hands. For a moment she thought she was going to hyperventilate again when she saw the blood mixing with the cold water and streaming down the drain, but she managed to control her breathing. After she was done cleaning her hands, Renee rushed towards the bedroom. She retrieved a large, dark purple suitcase from underneath the bed and opened it. Her eyes scanned the room as she wondered what she had to take, but she couldn't think clearly.

She killed James, oh dear God, she killed somebody! Renee could hardly believe it, she could feel her heart pounding in her head.

She opened the closet and stared at her clothes. How many dresses should she take? How many shirts, how many trousers? She had to take her underwear, shoes and a coat for sure. Renee grabbed a few clothes and put them inside her suitcase. She collected her make-up and added them to her clothes, only leaving behind the red lipstick James always wanted her to wear; Renee would never wear red lipstick again for as long as she lived. She opened the drawer of James' nightstand, grabbed his wallet and quickly checked it; luckily there were some dollar bills in it. His pistol was also in the drawer, fully loaded. It was his favorite weapon to threaten her with. Renee decided to take the pistol with her. And let's not forget about James' car keys; his car was now going to be their get-away car.

Renee quickly glanced at herself in the large mirror and noticed the blood on her clothes. She realized she wouldn't be able to wear that, people would immediately know she had done something horrible if they laid eyes on her clothes. Renee stripped herself from her bloody clothes and traded them for a light blue sleeveless dress that she had left behind in the closet. She closed her suitcase and left the bedroom.

'Alright, I'm done.' she said to Dean. She handed over the car keys. 'James' car is outside at the parking lot, we can use that.'

'Good. Now come on, let's go!'

They turned around and opened the door. Renee didn't even bother to look over her shoulder before they exited the apartment.

The two partners in crime walked down the stairs as fast as possible; Renee was convinced that the neighbors may have called the police by now. They exited the apartment complex and on Renee's instructions they turned right, heading towards the parking lot. The parking lot was only a few meters away from the apartment complex. Renee could already spot James' car from a distance.

'There it is.' she said, pointing at an old red Mercedes with some bald spots on the frame. 'Come on, let's hurry!'

Once they reached the car, Renee opened the trunk and put her suitcase inside. They got inside; Dean took place on the driver's seat, Renee on the passenger's seat. Dean started the car, put it in reverse and backed up. He shifted gear once more and they drove away from the apartment complex, leaving a gruesome crime scene behind them.


	10. A New Life

**Chapter 10**

 **A New Life**

'How are you holding up?'

Dean's voice made Renee snap out of her thoughts. Up until now, she had watched the world behind the car's window passing her by as they drove further away from the bloodbath that had occurred a few moments ago in the apartment. The outside world had no idea that Dean crime had battered James' face before Renee, the tormented prostitute whose miserable situation didn't do anything to cast away the wicked lust of men, stabbed him until there wasn't a single drop of blood in his body, until the murder would be reported on the news. Renee wondered if the police had already arrived at the apartment, but now that she thought about it, she doubted whether the neighbors had called them. Hell, she was pretty damn sure they had heard her cry out in pain whenever James let his fury rain upon her during these past months, and yet no police officer showed up at their doorstep to arrest the bastard and take her to safety. Either the neighbors were too scared to call the police or they just simply didn't care about the abuse. Renee was convinced it was the latter.

'I... I'm fine, I guess...' Renee replied. 'It's just that... God, I can't believe what happened, it's so... so...'

'Fucked up?' Dean suggested before stopping in front of a red traffic light. For a moment the neon red light reminded Renee of the blood that had been spilled in the apartment, but she quickly pulled herself together.

'Yeah, you could say that again.' she said. Yes, fucked up was what came the closest to what she was feeling right now. 'Jesus Christ, Dean... I killed him... I couldn't stop stabbing him, I can't-'

'Don't tell me you are feeling regret about this.' The traffic light switched from red to green and Dean speeded up. 'That son of a bitch deserved everything that was coming to him, scum like him doesn't deserve to live. Trust me Renee, you practically did the whole world a huge fucking favor by killing him.'

Renee let out a sigh and stared through the window. 'I know he had ruined my life...' she spoke with a soft voice. 'But killing somebody just isn't right...'

'Said who? Seriously Renee, some people are just better off when they vanish off the Earth. Think about this... if you hadn't killed him, he would've probably moved on to another girl to make her life a living hell. Would you want that?'

'No, of course not!'

'Then there's nothing to feel like shit about. He won't hurt you anymore nor anyone else, simple as that.'

For a short period of time, it was quiet inside the car, if the monotone roaring of the engine didn't count. They drove around aimlessly in Rey City for a while, since Renee didn't give any instructions about how to leave the city.

'So, do you have any specific place you want to go?' Dean suddenly asked.

That was a damn good question. For a moment Renee wanted to tell that they could go to her late grandmother's house, but then she quickly realized that the house was already sold; the new residents probably wouldn't be too fond of giving shelter to them.

'I don't care where we're going.' Renee replied. 'As long as we can get as far away from this damn city as possible.'

'Sounds good to me. Do you at least know how we can get out of here?'

'Y-yeah, I think I do.' In the distance, Renee saw the entrance of the park, the place where she used to wait for potential customers. She wanted to leave that sickening memory behind her as soon as possible. 'There's the park. You have to turn left here, then turn left again at the second turn.'

'Right.' When they got close to the park, Dean turned left and a few meters later, they turned left once again. Glancing at the outside mirror, Renee saw the distance between the car and her 'work place' increased more and more. It felt like there was a rope tied to her and the park; the more the distance grew, the more the 'rope' would tense up... until it would eventually snap. When they turned left at the second turn, Renee could feel the 'rope' snapping in two, freeing her. It was so strange, but it felt good in some way. However, she couldn't help but look in the outside mirror to check if someone was following them; even if James was dead now, the threat of his friends following and hurting her was still embedded in her mind.

'Chill out, there's no-one behind us.' Dean said while still focusing on the road in front of them. 'If someone had been following us, I would've noticed it already.'

'I really hope you're right about that, Dean...' Renee sighed.

'Do I have to turn somewhere?'

'No, you don't. Just keep going straight.'

The closer they were at leaving Rey City behind them, the more Renee could taste the freedom she had longed for such a long time on the tip of her tongue. Finally, after months of suffering so much physical and sexual abuse all because of that monster James, she was about to be freed from her chains that kept her here. A new life was awaiting her, she felt like Dean had given her a second chance; she owed her freedom to him.

And just like that, the last 'chain' that bound her to Rey City broke when they passed the sign saying 'You have just left Rey City. Have a safe trip and see you next time!'.

Renee hoped this hell-hole would burn down to the ground one day, along with all the men who had taken advantage of her situation.

* * *

Damn it... they had been driving for almost fifteen minutes now and there still wasn't a single goddamn sign of life.

They had finally left that shithole of a city behind them, but now that their main mission had been completed, Dean had absolutely no clue of what to do next. James was dead, Renee's days of working as a prostitute were over, so what were they going to do now? Dean could feel a stinging pain in his knuckles, but he couldn't care less about his damaged knuckles; that piece of shit James deserved to have his face beaten into a complete fucking mess. From now on he would never be able to hurt Renee again, and Dean was sure no other men would do that to her as well. He would punch them until his knuckles exposed the bones underneath the burst skin if he had to.

Holy hell... who ever knew it would come to this? Agreeing with a prostitute to kill her abusive pimp so she could escape from him? Dean was sure that it wasn't because of love, yes, he was absolutely sure of that. Sure, Renee was a very pretty woman, he had to admit that, but love...? No, he didn't feel that for her, but he did sort of care about her. It was most likely that he did this because he thought she deserved a second chance. Plus, he felt like there was some sort of strange connection between them. They were both fucked over by life, which is possibly why he chose to care about her. Besides, perhaps a little bit of company while he tried his best to stay out of reach from the police wouldn't be that bad.

Renee hadn't said anything during the last fifteen minutes; as if she was in some sort of trance, she stared through the window at the sun that slowly went down, it would only last a few more hours before the day would end. If you could name up one of the things Dean didn't like, it would be silent car rides. He pushed on the button of the car's radio and almost immediately 'Hotel California' from the Eagles broke through the silence.

'Welcome to the Hotel California... Such a lovely place, such a lovely place, such a lovely face...'

Despite the pain in his knuckles and knowing the fact that he was partially responsible for the death of a pimp, Dean curled the corners of his mouth into a smile. Thank God there was still room on the modern-day radio for some good music, instead of that stupid, talentless shit they aired nowadays. Suddenly, Dean could swear he heard Renee humming along with the song. His eyes darted to his right and indeed, she was humming with a soft voice while she continued to stare through the window. 'Good to know that she has a good taste in music.' Dean thought to himself.

Then, when the song was heading towards its end, the escaped criminal finally spotted two signs of life; an advertisement board that informed them that there was a fast food restaurant one kilometer away, quickly followed by a neon sign that read 'Motel Sunset View' in bright red. Less than a hundred meters away, they saw a motel including a big parking lot on the side of the road.

'About freaking time.' Dean mumbled. Looked like that motel was going to be their hideout for now.

They turned right, parking on the motel's parking lot. From the outside, Motel Sunset View looked pretty much like every other standard motel you'd see in the United States. It was shaped like a shoebox, had three floors and Dean was pretty sure some of the rooms were inhabited by junkies. But it was a place they could stay at nonetheless.

'How about we're going to crash here for a couple of days?' Dean asked while he shut off the car's engine. 'Hotel California' was abruptly cut off before it could even completely finish. 'I guess you'd probably prefer more of that fancy shit, but-'

'No no, it's fine with me.' Renee replied. 'It doesn't bother me a bit, as long as it's cozy inside.'

'Let's find out about that, then.'

And if some junkie dared to harm her, Dean was more than willing to shove a heroin needle or two down his damn throat.

* * *

Much to Dean's surprise, the interior of their motel room looked actually cleaner than he'd expected.

It looked like it had been cleaned just a few hours ago, God knows what a mess it must've been before they arrived. The motel room looked pretty dull if you would ask him; the walls were covered with a brown wallpaper with a pattern of small blue and yellow trees on it, the sheets of the queen bed had been neatly ironed (despite that, Dean really hoped they wouldn't find an urine stain before going to sleep), there was a wooden closet for them to stuff their belongings into, a TV in front of the bed was going to give them entertainment if they wanted to and a digital alarm clock was put on top of the nightstand on the left side of the bed. Overall, it didn't look that bad.

Staying at this place for three days and three nights would cost thirty-five dollars for each day, the chubby lady with her hair full of hairspray and wearing a pair of glasses that would've been fashionable in the fifties informed them when they stood at the reception desk to check in. Renee had checked her wallet and found out they had enough money to pay for the stay.

'So, what do you think, Renee?' Dean asked. He took of his jacket and tossed it onto a chair in the corner of the room. 'Does it look cozy enough for you?'

Then he heard the sound of a suitcase dropping to the floor, then followed by a faint thud. Looking up, he saw that Renee had let herself fall on top of the queen bed, spreading her arms and legs and staring at the ceiling. She smiled from ear to ear and started to laugh. It was the first time that Dean had ever heard Renee laugh... and it sounded like she was genuinely happy. Renee covered her mouth with her hands, muffling her laughter. A tear rolled over the corner of her eye and trickled down her temple.

'Oh my God...' Renee chuckled. 'I can't believe it, Dean... I'm free, I'm finally free! It's over, I can finally move on with my life! Goddamn it, it feels like I'm dreaming!'

Dean smiled. 'Glad to hear you're enjoying your freedom.'

He decided to join her on the bed. As soon as his back touched the sheets, his entire body relaxed. 'Aaah, it has been such a long time since I've been lying on something comfortable.' Dean exclaimed. 'This is definitely so much better than a bench in the park.'

Renee slightly sat up and looked at Dean in surprise. 'Wait, you have been sleeping in the park all these days?' she asked. 'Your back must be freaking sore then!'

'Nah, it isn't that bad. I have been sleeping on worse places. Alleys, floors of abandoned buildings... that bench had to be the most comfortable of them all.'

'Wow, really? You have been sleeping in abandoned buildings?'

'Let's just say that I would often rather sleep there than stay at my folks' place for a second longer.'

'Damn... was your relationship with your parents that bad?'

'You could say that again. They weren't actually the number one parents in the world, you know. They were more busy with getting drunk and arguing than actually looking after their own damn kid. Honestly... To this day, I wonder why the fuck someone would have children if they are not able to take care of one.'

'I guess you are right about that... Did you fight a lot with your parents?'

Dean chuckled. 'You bet I did. Hell, I fought with almost everybody. Friends, family, teachers at school, scumbags that hung around in the neighborhood, you name it, I have fought them all. I guess I just didn't give a damn about anything back then.'

'I'm sorry to hear about that...'

'Hey, don't worry about it. Fighting and not giving a shit is a big part of me.'

'But you also have a good side, I have seen it.' Renee rolled onto her side, staring at Dean while supporting her head with her hand. 'You were the only person to care about me when I thought I would be stuck there forever. You treated me like a human being instead of a lust object, you stood up for me in that diner, I'm forever grateful for that, really. You gave me a second chance, you helped me to escape... You are a good person, Dean.'

Holy hell, did he just hear that right? Nobody had ever called him a good person before... For the first time in ages, Dean had no idea of what he was going to say. He wasn't used to receive a compliment like that. You could call him the worst names, it wouldn't move him one bit, but now that Renee called him a good person... Dean looked for words to say, but couldn't find any. Would Renee still think he had a heart of gold if she would know that he had killed his wife and her lover in a fit of rage? He highly doubted it. But for now, he planned to keep his past as a secret.

For a little while, they both didn't say anything as they were enjoying this peaceful moment.

Suddenly, Renee's stomach loudly growled, making her giggle in embarrassment.

'Looks like somebody's hungry.' Dean said with a hint of amusement in his voice. 'I have seen that there's a fast food joint nearby, care to have a bite there?'

'That sounds great!' Renee sat up and smiled at Dean. 'I'm craving for something with lots of bacon and cheese.'

Dean chuckled and nodded; she sure as hell deserved that after everything she went through.


	11. His True Face

**Chapter 11**

 **His True Face**

Today was the perfect weather to celebrate Dean's and Renee's newfound freedom. It almost felt like they had entered a whole new world by leaving the rainy, depressing Rey City for the warm sun that made the guests at Motel Sunset View go outside and visit the motel's small pool.

It had been such a long time since Dean and Renee had a good night of sleep; after they returned from eating a hamburger (thankfully for Renee, they did have hamburgers with bacon and cheese) at the nearby fast food restaurant, they stayed up for a little while watching TV before going to bed. Of course they had checked the news before shutting off the TV; luckily there weren't any reports of James' murder, both Dean and Renee hoped it would stay that way. Dean wished for James' corpse to rot away in that damn apartment without anyone batting an eye.

But despite a peaceful night without waking up a single time due to a nightmare or the urgent need to go to the bathroom, they were rudely woken up early the next morning by a heated argument that unfolded in the motel room next to them. When the partners in crime listened at the shouting from the couple on the other side of the wall, it became clear that the dear hubby had drank a beer or two too much and flirted with another woman in his drunken stupor, and his wife clearly wasn't amused by this. The fight ended with the sound of something shattering to pieces onto the floor (a vase, a mirror, or their marriage) and the hysterical sobbing of a woman. Dean looked at Renee and widened his blue eyes as much as possible, faking an expression of pure shock. Renee couldn't help but snort and giggle in amusement; who knew that this guy also had a funny side.

Dean had to admit one little thing, though; it was a little bit awkward to sleep with Renee in the same bed. Perhaps the lady behind the reception desk assumed that they were a couple, which was probably why they were given a room with a queen bed. Dean hoped Renee didn't feel too uncomfortable about this. He wondered if she had plenty of sleep last night despite everything that had happened, but she didn't make a tired impression or anything when she woke up. It must've felt amazing for her to not wake up with the suffocating anxiety of being forced to have sex with strange men and possibly receiving a beating from your pimp at the end of the day if she didn't make enough money. But those days were over now, Renee had all the right to start a new life after all the shit she had been through.

The two decided to stay at the motel for today to get some proper rest. In the afternoon, they thought it was time to get out of their dull motel room and get a bit of fresh air.

'I have seen a pool outside, do you think we can go there?' Renee asked while sitting on the edge of the bed. 'It has been a while since I went swimming, it would be nice to do that again...'

Dean thought about it. Sure, it was a nice weather outside to go out and take a dive, plus sitting in their hotel room all day long would be a waste of their time. But then again, hanging out near the pool would be a risky move as well; who knows, maybe someone would recognize him as Dean Ambrose, that bastard who was suspected of killing his wife and another man and escaped while he was on his way to his trial. However, he hadn't seen anything about him on the news last night... Fine. He decided to give it a shot.

'Alright then.' Dean said. 'You got a bikini or anything?'

'I actually do!' Renee replied. Dean could swear he saw a little happy twinkle in her hazel eyes. 'Hold on a minute, I'm gonna get changed.' The young woman opened the closet and took a light yellow bikini, a pair of brown slippers and a slightly transparent white dress. With those pieces of clothing she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. A few moments later she came back, donning the white dress with the bikini underneath it. Dean blinked his eyes in surprise; she almost looked like a goddess.

'Okay, I'm done.' Renee said. 'Let's go, shall we?'

* * *

Dean had decided to leave his leather jacket in the motel room, because there was no way in hell he was ever going to sit there in the heat while sweating like a pig due to wearing that thing. Too bad he didn't have a pair swimming trunks, or else he would've gone for a dive as well. When they arrived at the pear-shaped pool of the motel, Dean and Renee immediately noticed that other people came up with the same idea Renee had. Some of the motel's guests had already taken a dive into the water that seemed to sparkle in the bright sunlight while others lazily lounged on the white plastic seats in the sun or in the shadow. As Dean and Renee walked past the edge of the pool, they heard a young couple who were supporting themselves in the water by folding their arms over the edge speaking in a foreign language they didn't understand a single word of. Tourists, Dean figured out. Have fun spending your vacation in a complete fucking wasteland, he guessed.

'Oh look, there's a spot right over there!' Renee exclaimed, pointing at two empty seats. 'Do you want to sit there?'

'Fine with me.' Dean mumbled. They walked towards the seats and put their towels on it (Renee had quickly grabbed two towels from the bathroom's cabinet before they left their room).

'I think we can't stay in the sun for too long.' Renee said. 'Too bad I didn't bring any sunscreen, I love to get a tan when the sun's out! Seriously, I feel kind of stupid for forgetting it...'

Look at her pale arms, Dean thought that she indeed needed a good tan. Her skin was so pale, as if the abuse she had suffered at the hands of that asshole James had drained whatever amount of tan she got during the summer right out of her. There was no way of hiding those ugly bruises that decorated the skin on her arms, they were out in the open for everyone to see. Dean hoped that James would burn in Hell for everything he had done to her.

'I don't think you're stupid, Renee.' he said. Time to boost her self-confidence. 'Never thought you were.'

'Really?' Renee smiled from ear to ear. 'You really think that? It has been a long time since anyone had ever told me that...'

The smile was warm and sincere, Dean could clearly see it. And if he had to be honest... he thought it made her look even more prettier. It reminded him of a line from 'Hotel California'. 'Such a lovely face...'

Renee thought it was time to get a better access to getting a proper tan. She took off her dress and tossed it next to her seat, revealing her light yellow bikini. Dean was mildly shocked to see even more bruises on her body, making him wish James would burn in Hell even harder. This young woman right here could've been shining on millions of television screens as a popular interviewer on some news channel. And even if she wouldn't make it to that, she could've always been a model or hell, even an actress. James had taken that all away from her by forcing her to become a prostitute; Dean was so glad that he was now rotting on the floor in that damn apartment. But despite the rage that he felt for a little moment, he also felt a bit of admiration; Renee had the guts to show her bruises, like a survivor would proudly show his battle scars. And Renee was without a doubt a survivor, she wasn't afraid to show the people at the pool what she had been through. Dean had to admit that he respected her for that.

They lounged on their seats for a while and so far, Dean hadn't seen anything that could suggest that someone had recognized him as the escaped murderer. Good, he preferred to let it be like this. The longer he would remain a free man, the better.

She hadn't felt this much tranquility in ages. The warm light of the sun and the sparkling, babbling water of the pool was more than enough to bring back one of the few pleasant childhood memories Renee had. It was two years after her parents had met their untimely demise. Her grandmother owned a small cabin near a lake in the woods that she visited every summer and Renee was glad to come along with her. There weren't any other children from her age in the area, but that didn't mean she had a great time. The lake was huge and it was safe to swim in. The weather was always bright and warm, Renee loved to go outside each day to play in the woods and swim in the cool water of the lake. Those summers were the best summers of her life, it helped to ease the pain of the loss of her parents. But one day in autumn, it all abruptly came to an end when a bunch of delinquent teen boys thought it would be fun to set the cabin ablaze at night. Just like her grandmother, Renee was devastated when she heard the news; those boys had unwittingly taken a big part of her childhood away from her.

Come to think of it... Renee was actually in the mood for a good swim.

'Alright, here I go!' she said with a playful grin. Before Dean could even react, she stood up from her seat, ran towards the water like an excited child and jumped in with a loud splash, sending water flying everywhere, soaking the other guests and the tiling. Seconds later, Renee emerged at the surface, sliding her hand over her wet hair while sighing in satisfaction.

'Oh my God, Dean!' she exclaimed in excitement. 'You should get in here too, it's so good! You don't know what you're missing!'

Dean smiled and shook his head. 'No thanks, I'm fine. Besides, I don't have a pair of swimming trunks...'

Renee softly chuckled. 'Oops, that's right, I forgot about that! Sorry!'

'Don't worry about it.' No, Dean preferred to sit here and watch her swim. For some reason, she reminded him of a mermaid... perhaps it was due to the fact that she looked so pretty in the water.

So damn pretty.

* * *

Lying on the bed while zapping from channel to channel, Renee felt as fit as a fiddle.

A little while ago she had washed her hair in the bathroom, if there was one thing she couldn't stand it was the smell of chlorine. The entire bathroom smelled like that stuff after she had washed herself, she hoped Dean wouldn't mind it too much. He was in there by himself now, when he was done they would go out to have dinner, possibly in the same small town nearby where they had lunch this afternoon. Renee actually didn't mind having a hamburger again, but she hoped that they wouldn't eat hamburgers every single night, she was convinced she was going to be sick if that would happen. Her hair was almost dry, so it wouldn't be a problem to go outside.

Renee found it so hard to believe that she was safe now. Only now she started to realize that threat of James 'friends' stalking her until they would kill her was possible an empty threat, to keep her under his control. Hell, back then she believed every threat James made. But now her tormentor was dead... and she was the cause of it. She slaughtered him on the floor in their apartment, whenever Renee closed her eyes she could still picture how she launched the blade of the butcher knife into his stomach. Yes, at first she couldn't believe what she had done... but now here, lying on the queen bed in this motel room, she had never felt so free.

It was all because of Dean.

If he had never approached her back there at the park, she would still be trapped in the prostitution. Her knight in shining armor had arrived that day without her even realizing it, he had finally come for her to save her. Renee thought she would never meet a man again who would treat her well, unlike James and the customers. So far he had been nothing more but caring and protective towards her, and God, it felt so good. Renee felt safe with Dean, it was something she hadn't felt for ages. He had given her the chance to start a new life, she couldn't thank him enough for this.

Renee looked forward to live the rest of her life in freedom.

Just then, a well-known intro song of a news channel was heard from the TV. A camera zoomed on an anchorman standing behind a large desk. Renee could feel her heartbeat slightly rising; she hoped from the bottom of her heart nobody had found James' body yet.

'Good evening, this is the news from five o'clock, presented to you by Byron Saxton.' the anchorman announced. 'The manhunt for Dean Ambrose may have not had any results a few days ago, but things are finally looking up as a witness claims he had seen him in Rey City, a place not too far away from the location where the accident had happened, that gave him the chance to escape.'

A mug shot of Dean, where he was seen staring straight into the camera with a emotionless look on his face, was then shown on the screen for millions of people who were watching the news at the same time to see. It was the face of the man who had given Renee back her freedom.

Renee could feel her heart sinking to her feet as she widened her eyes in pure horror.

'What...?!' she whispered in disbelief.

'Ambrose is the main suspect of the gruesome murders of his wife Tina Ambrose and his colleague Frank Grey. During the ride towards his trial, the police car Ambrose collided and rolled down a hill. Ambrose survived the crash and escaped, even managing to get rid of his handcuffs. There hadn't been a trace of him since, until now. A witness who wishes to remain anonymous claims to have seen Ambrose exiting an apartment complex in Rey City along with a female companion whose identity is unknown so far. Security footage of the apartment complex has cemented this claim. In that same apartment complex the dead body of a man had been found by police after neighbors called 911 after hearing loud noises coming from the apartment on the same day Ambrose was seen at the location, but whether the death of the man is linked to Ambrose and the woman who was with him, has yet to be confirmed.'

Frozen in shock, Renee couldn't keep her eyes off the screen as the camera footage was broadcasted, showing her and Dean exiting the apartment complex.

Oh dear fucking God... she was traveling with a wanted criminal!

Renee thought she couldn't breathe, it felt like her throat had been squeezed shut. Dean, the man she thought she could feel safe with, the man who had saved her from a life of forced prostitution, was in fact a murderer on the run... Did that mean he was going to kill her too?! What was he doing there in the bathroom anyway, was he sitting there planning on how to kill her without leaving any further traces? Hundreds of thoughts raced through Renee's mind, dear God, she couldn't think clear anymore.

'Run!' a voice inside her head screamed. 'Run goddamn it, get out of here!'

The sense of safety was gone.

In a fit of panic-fueled adrenaline, Renee immediately jumped up from the bed, put on her boots, grabbed the car keys from the nightstand and rushed out of the motel room, slamming the door behind her. Her heart raised back up and was now pounding inside her head as she ran as fast as she could over the corridor. Renee forced herself not to look around her, afraid that Dean was right behind her and grab her to finish her off in the motel room. She didn't care where she would end up, as long as she could get out of this place, get away from Dean!

Renee ran down the stairs and nearly tripped over her own feet as a result of her panic, but managed to grab onto the guardrail before she could fall. She quickly pulled herself together and continued to run until she reached the bottom of the stairs.

The cold wind of the approaching night didn't do anything to calm her down. In the distance she saw the car at the parking lot, just a little bit more and she-

'Where do you think you're going, missy?'

A rough hand touched her shoulder, stopping Renee dead in her tracks and emit a loud gasp. Oh God, he had followed her! Now he was going to drag her back to the motel room and kill her for trying to escape! Turning around, Renee didn't look into the face of Dean, but the face of a man in his late fifties wearing a baseball cap and worn-down overalls. Jesus Christ, where did he come from?! A wide grin spread across the man's face. Renee smelled a scent she was all too familiar with; alcohol.

'What's the big hurry?' the man asked, the grin refusing to leave his face. 'A fine-looking girl like you shouldn't hurry for anything. Why don't you stay with me and make a poor man like me some company?'

Renee shook the hand of her shoulder. 'Please, I don't have time for this!' she panted. 'I have to get out of here, or-'

'You aren't going anywhere!' the man replied, grabbing Renee's arm. 'You and I are going to my truck to have a good time, you will forget all your worries when you're with me, baby.'

'Don't call me baby!' Renee exclaimed, trying to break free from the man's grip. 'Now let me go, please!'

'Oh, are we going to play hard to get? Fine with me! I don't mind roughing up a bitch like you before having a little bit of fun...' The man burst into a fit of laughter, which somehow made the smell of alcohol even worse.

'No, let go of me! Stop it! Please, somebody help!' Renee screamed.

'Will you just shut up?! Or do I have to-'

Suddenly the man was roughly tackled to the ground, causing him to let go of Renee's arm and exclaim a scream of surprise. The terrified woman's legs trembled as she watched the sight happening in front of her eyes.

Dean had managed to overpower her attacker, grab him by the head and slam it onto the concrete ground multiple times as hard as he could. Renee could swear that she heard the man's skull cracking, it almost made her sick to her stomach. Dean only stopped bashing the man's head he had unleashed all of his rage upon him. He let go of him, letting his head rest in a small pool of his own blood; the man emitted a soft groan of pain before falling silent.

Softly panting, Dean glanced at Renee, who was still standing there, her eyes wide with shock and her legs trembling like crazy.

'Are you alright? Did he hurt you?' Dean asked, his voice hoarse with anger.

Renee was unable to speak a single word, but managed to shake her head.

Looking down to the man, Dean spat on him, making it perfectly clear how much contempt he had for scum like him.

'Come on, Renee... Let's get back.'


	12. The Past Is In The Past

**Chapter 12**

 **The Past Is In The Past**

Immediately after Dean and Renee had entered their motel room, the young woman walked straight towards the window and turned around, looking Dean straight in the eyes. The shock she had felt earlier was now replaced with anger; she wasn't planning on going easy on him just because he had saved her from that pervert on the parking lot.

'Would you mind explaining me about what the fuck I just saw on the news a few moments ago?!' Renee shouted angrily, pointing at the TV.

Dean frowned in confusion. 'What? What do you-'

Renee refused to give him the chance to let him speak, however. 'Is it true? Is it true what that guy said? That you killed your own wife and-'

'Will you keep it down, damn it?!' Dean hissed. Fuck... fuck, fuck, fuck! She must've heard about this when she was watching TV while he was still in the bathroom, there could've been no other way she could know about this! It was too late to deny it, she knew everything, but that didn't mean she could be loud about it; the walls of the motel room were thin, you could hear every single word your neighbor was saying. With a bit of bad luck, the bitter couple next door had heard Renee.

Dean walked over to Renee. 'I can explain this to you, okay?' he said. 'Will you just-'

'Get away from me!' Renee shouted, backing away from him. 'Don't you dare to touch me! I warn you, I will scream out of the window if you dare to hurt me! I'm warning you, Dean!'

'Be quiet for a second, will you?! I'm not going to hurt you, Renee! Why would I do that?! For God's sake, just let me explain everything to you!'

He was standing right in front of her now, causing their eyes to meet each other. Ice blue met soothing hazel, but it didn't have anything loving, like you'd expect when a man and a woman would look each other in the eyes. No, this didn't have anything to do with affection; right now, this was about regaining one's trust. Renee glared at Dean, he could see that she was dead serious about opening the window and screaming her lungs out for help if he would try to lay a finger on her. But he wasn't going to hurt her, honestly. She didn't do anything to trigger his anger, at least, not yet. Dean hoped that at least she would be willing to listen to his story. He didn't expect Renee to think of him the same way again, but at least she would know what secrets he had been hiding. Dean would leave the rest up to her; if she still wanted to stick with him despite everything, that was fine with him, but if she wished to part ways with him, he would respect it. However, he hoped Renee wouldn't hitchhike all the way towards a nearby police station to report that she had encountered a wanted criminal...

Renee didn't say anything for a short moment, but then Dean could swear that he saw her slightly nodding.

'Okay then.' she said with a cold voice. 'But you'd better have a damn good explanation for this, Dean. And remember, if you-'

'Yes, I know, you're going to scream like a fucking banshee out of the window, you told me that already. Now just be quiet for a second and let me tell the truth.'

Dean sat down on the edge of the bed, expecting Renee to sit down next to him, but she had decided to stand near the window, in case he would break his promise. She continued to stare at him, not even blinking her eyes once, as if she was afraid that if she did so he would get up and launch at her throat like a wild animal. But Dean wasn't planning on doing that at all, but now that he thought about it... he wouldn't hesitate to fight back if she tried to attack him.

'You see, before all of this shit started, I used to work on a construction site. It was a piece of shit job, but money has to come in one way or another. There I got to know this guy, his name was Frank...'

'The same Frank they talked about on the news?' Renee asked with that same cold voice, interrupting him.

'Yeah, it was that Frank. We got along well, actually. He often dropped by at my place, he was an okay guy, at least, that's what I thought... Me and my wife, Tina, well, ex-wife would be a better description by now, we were married for five years. I met her a few years ago in a bar. You know when they talk about love at first sight? Well, I think that's what happened, but it could also be because we were both piss drunk at the moment.'

But this little joke didn't do anything to catch a smile from Renee. Dean decided to continue his oh so tragic story.

'Either way... It was because of Tina that I had decided to turn my life around, you know? During the time we dated, I didn't have a single run-in with the cops, all because of meeting that woman. I thought she had turned me into a better person. Two years later, we were married. We didn't have much money, we could barely pay the fucking rent, but we had each other and that's what mattered to us. That job at the construction site was a goddamn miracle. Everything seemed to go a bit better when I started working... but it didn't last long before I lost the job because I got into a fight with the boss, I don't even remember what that fight was about. I went home and... that's when I caught Tina in our bed with Frank.'

'Damn...' Renee whispered. Her voice didn't sound that cold anymore; she had let down her guard enough to express some shock.

'He had called off sick that day, I can guess why by now. And I'll be honest with you, everything turned red as soon as I saw them. But when everything went back to normal, they were both dead.'

'Do you remember killing them?' Renee wasn't sure if she actually wanted to hear the answer...

Dean nodded. 'Yeah, I do. First I shot Frank with a gun I had put in my closet, then I strangled Tina to death with my own hands.' It surprised Dean how calm he sounded during the entire confession, but remembering the mental image of Tina lying underneath Frank in their bed, he could feel his rage slowly starting to boil. 'That bitch had stabbed me right in the back that day, Renee. I had tried to become a better man and do my best for her, but it turned out it wasn't enough for her. I had never felt that hurt and betrayed in my entire life... and she had to pay for it. I don't regret killing them and I don't think I ever will.'

It was completely silent in the motel room.

Suddenly there was movement in Renee. She stepped away from the window and sat down next to Dean, much to his surprise; he had expected her to run out of the motel room as if the devil himself was chasing her.

'I'm sorry to hear that, Dean, I really am...' Renee softly spoke. It was hard to believe it, but... she felt pity for him, somehow. 'But killing them was not the right thing to do. They were still human beings, you know. I can understand that you have been hurt beyond belief, but it doesn't justify anything.'

Dean shook his head, but didn't say anything for a little moment.

'Look, if you still want to travel with me, that's fine. But if you want to leave-'

'I can't go anywhere now, Dean. They have found James' body, they also said that on the news. I had forgotten there were security cameras installed near the apartment complex, fuck, I feel so stupid for forgetting that! Millions of people have seen my face now, Jesus Christ, everyone in this damn motel could've seen the news for all that matters, they're going to recognize me for sure! As long as we stick together, we might still have a chance.'

Dean slowly nodded; she had a fair point in that.

'But how do I know you're not going to kill me if I anger you somehow?' Renee suddenly asked. She just had to know. She didn't fully know Dean yet, Renee still didn't know what buttons she had to push to unleash his anger.

'Renee...' Dean said. 'You have been through enough shit already, okay? I don't want you to suffer any more pain, you don't deserve it. You don't have to be afraid of me, I promise you that. I wouldn't lay a finger on you. Do you believe me?'

Renee slowly nodded. She hoped from the bottom of her heart Dean would keep that promise.

* * *

How long had she been staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror now? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Thirty minutes? Renee had forgotten all about it, it felt like time had frozen as soon as she had set foot inside the bathroom.

In her right hand, she was holding a pair of scissors she had found in the drawer of the washstand, doubting whether she should make the next step.

It was going to be big, she knew that. This was going to change a part of her identity, which is what she wanted to do, but now that she was standing here with an actual pair of scissors in her hand, she had started to doubt. Letting out a soft sigh, Renee ran her left hand over her long, blonde hair. For as long as she could remember, she always had long hair, ever since she was a little girl. Renee would always remember the mornings where her mother would spend time on brushing her hair when she was still a little girl, she knew that she absolutely loved doing this for her daughter. Your hair is a part of your identity, Renee knew that. She only cut her hair if the ends got split, so she never had a bob cut or anything, it had always remained long.

But as pretty as her hair was, it also carried Renee's darkest memories with it. It felt like all the pain she had felt due to those memories were stored inside those blonde locks; it was the pain of waiting for your parents to pick you up from school only for your grandmother to pick you up instead to tell you that your parents had died in a car crash, the pain of having the man you once loved stomping on your heart and forcing you to have sex with strangers to earn money for him. How many times had James nearly ripped the hair out of her head during the almost daily abuse? Renee had lost count.

Her hair tied her to her past... and she wished to cut ties with it.

Renee's past had been filled with nothing more pain and disappointments. Nobody deserved to go through life without parents, to be raised by a grandmother who didn't know how to show love and only knew how to show strictness, to have said grandmother, who just happened to be the only family member you had left, suddenly die while you are in college, to have a boyfriend who would turn into an abusive bastard, force you to become a prostitute and rape you because you bought breakfast for another guy. Renee had experienced it all, she never wanted to think of it again, she wanted to forget it all.

Her new life was starting now.

It was time to start over.

This was going to help making it harder for people to recognize her.

As a nearly serene calmness overwhelmed Renee, she grabbed a lock of hair and guided the scissors towards it. She parted the blades and put the lock of hair between them. With one snip, a long piece of hair fell into the sink; she had cut just below her chin. Renee no longer felt any more doubt. The sink started to fill up with more pieces of hair as she cut the locks of hair one by one, making sure they were all on the same length. The more her hair started to take a new shape, the more she felt the pain of her past fading away.

It took ten minutes for Renee to complete her new haircut. Running her fingers through her short hair while staring into the mirror, she was almost unable to recognize herself; the reflection was that of a woman who looked like her when it came to her face, but her hair wasn't the same. It felt so strange to have short hair now... but it felt good, in some way. It wasn't too short, it was just right; she was happy with the result.

Renee collected the pieces of stray hair and dumped them in the trash can. When she exited the bathroom, Dean immediately noticed the big chance, slightly widening his eyes in surprise.

'Holy shit...' he said in awe. So that's what she had been doing there all this time...

'How do I look?' Renee asked. 'Do you think it looks good on me?'

Despite the surprise, Dean nodded. 'Yup. I think it fits you well.'


	13. Time To Run

**Chapter 13**

 **Time To Run**

While leaning against the railing of the corridor, Dean breathed in through his nose, filling his lungs with fresh morning air. It was around half past eight now, but he had already been awake for a couple of hours. Once he had awakened from a dreamless sleep, he was unable to fall asleep again. That must've been at five o'clock, yes, he was absolutely sure of that; the bright, red, illuminating digits of the alarm clock had said so when he glanced at it.

Renee had remained peacefully asleep during the past hours, Dean had made sure he wouldn't wake her up. It was so strange to see her with short hair, he wasn't used to see her like that... And yes, he had to admit this as well; she even looked damn pretty when she was sleeping. Who knows, perhaps if she had kept her long hair, she would've looked like a splitting image of Sleeping Beauty, lying in her bed and caught in a deep sleep, waiting for her prince to wake her with a kiss of true love. Dean was that prince, in some sort of way. If he had never crossed paths with her back in Rey City, she would probably be still stuck in a dreary world of abuse and non-consensual sex. But it was all fine now, she had managed to escape with his help and was now still sleeping in their bed without having to worry about the men she would have to serve. Renee still had the bruises she had received from James on her body, but with enough time, they would all fade away and her body would forever be cleansed from all the harm that bastard had done to her.

While Dean stared at the sun going up, he wondered what they were going to do next. If Renee was spotted on the camera footage they had showed on the news as she claimed, then he must've appeared on it as well. Hell, Dean was already pretty sure they had already showed his face when they reported about his escape. Everyone now knew who Dean Ambrose was; a heartless son of a bitch who had killed his wife and her lover in cold blood. People would be more alert now, that was for sure; who didn't want to earn a shitload of money if they gave the police the crucial tip that would lead to a wanted criminal's arrest?

But Dean wasn't planning on getting caught just yet. He wanted to enjoy his freedom a little longer, thank you very much.

Sure, he had a good reason to be put behind bars for the rest of his life, but Renee... shit, she didn't deserve to go to jail. She had all the right to kill James for ruining her life, scumbags like him didn't deserve to live. Renee did every woman in the world a favor, a huge fucking favor, by stabbing James like the pig he was. Dean was convinced that the judge wasn't going to be too sympathetic towards her despite all of this, though; he wouldn't hesitate to give her a life-sentence without parole due to the sheer brutality that came with the murder plus the fact that she was an accomplice to a dangerous criminal. No, Renee didn't deserve this kind of fate, she deserved better... which became one of the reasons why Dean planned on staying out of reach from the police for as long as possible.

Staring at the parking lot, something caught his eye. The pervert who had been harassing Renee last night was still lying on the concrete ground, the pool of blood his head was resting on had dried up and was colored in a deep shade of red. Dean had knocked that bastard out cold and he didn't regret one bit about it. God knows what could've happened to Renee if he hadn't been there in time.

Just then, Dean saw two girls in their early twenties, most likely guests from the motel, rushing towards the presumed unconscious body.

'Oh my God... is he alright?' one of the girls asked.

'I don't know, let me check, maybe there's still a pulse...' the other girl replied. Dean saw her touching the neck of the guy. Up until now, none of them had spotted him on the corridor.

'Jesus Christ...' the girl said the girl in horror. 'He is dead! Quick, call the police!'

Oh shit... he must've cracked his fucking skull when he slammed his head against the ground!

They had to get out.

Now.

Dean turned around and entered the motel room, making sure he didn't slam the door shut too loud to prevent raising any suspicion. He walked towards the bed, where Renee was still sleeping. Dean put his hand on her shoulder and started shaking it.

'Renee, come on, wake up! We've gotta go!' he exclaimed.

Renee let out a soft groan and slowly opened her eyes, staring at Dean is confusion. 'What...?' she whispered, still in a state of sleepiness. 'What's going on...?'

'Cops will be here at any moment, it's time we have to leave! Hurry up, go get your stuff!'

Hearing those words made Renee's heart skip a beat, causing her to be wide awake. She sat up in bed, blinking her eyes in shock. 'Oh no! Did someone see us?!'

'No, but they did find the body of the guy I took out last night. But come on, there's no time to explain! Get out, get changed and grab everything!'

Renee nearly tripped over her own feet as she rushed to get out of the bed, but quickly pulled herself together and ran towards the closet, pulling out all her clothes and tossing them on the bed. She retrieved her suitcase from underneath the bed and put all her clothes inside it, not even thinking about taking the time to properly fold them. But before she closed the suitcase, she grabbed a pair of underwear and her blue dress and entered the bathroom. Renee swore she had never changed her clothes this fast in her entire life. Her heart was pounding in her head, oh God, they could be arrested at any moment! She did not even take the time to brush her hair or teeth. When she was done, she put her nightgown and the previous pair of underwear and the make-up she had collected in the backroom and put them inside the suitcase, zipping it shut. Renee put on her boots, absolutely sure that she had packed everything. Dean had already grabbed the pistol, wallet and car keys.

'Okay, I'm done.' she panted with a slightly hoarse voice. 'We can go!'

'Good. Come on!'

But before Dean could touch the doorknob, Renee realized something. 'Dean, wait! Give me the wallet!'

Dean turned around in annoyance. 'Renee, we don't have fucking time for this! We have to-'

'Goddamn it, just give it to me!'

Dean pulled the wallet out of his pocket and handed it over to Renee. She opened it and took out thirty-five dollars, tossing them on the bed. 'There.' Renee said when she gave the wallet back to Dean. 'I didn't want to leave like this.'

Despite the immense stress, Dean chuckled and shook his head. So there are fugitives with manners in this world after all...

* * *

They wanted to run towards their car as fast as possible, but if they would do that they were bound to look suspicious like hell.

Trying to act as calm as possible, Dean and Renee ascended down the stairs of Motel Sunset View for one last time. Outside, they looked to see if they could catch a glimpse of a police car, but thankfully the cops hadn't arrived just yet.

'We can still make it, Dean.' Renee said, her throat dry like a desert. 'Look, the car is right over there, we just have to walk a bit more!'

Dean slightly nodded. 'Alright. Come on, let's bail!'

As they walked towards the car, Renee had the strong urge to look over her shoulder, wanting to make absolutely sure nobody was following them. As she was about to do so, Dean poked her arm with his elbow. 'Don't do that.' he hissed. 'People will notice!' Renee blinked her eyes in surprise, but nodded understandingly. He had a fair point in that.

Before they could reach the car, Dean glanced at the body of the pervert, who hadn't been moved for an inch, lying on the concrete like a prop for an action movie. The girls hadn't left his side for a moment, still waiting for the police to arrive. Thank God they were too busy with that to notice the partners in crime; a wanted criminal and his accomplice were walking a few meters away from them and they didn't even realize that.

As soon as Dean unlocked the car, Renee opened the trunk and put the suitcase inside, slamming the trunk shut with a dull thud. They got inside and Dean started the car, causing the roaring of the engine to break the silence. He put the vehicle in reverse and then shifted the gear once more, driving away from the parking lot with a steady speed and leaving Motel Sunset View behind them forever.

Glancing at the outside mirror, Renee could feel her heart sinking to her feet; they had just escaped in the nick of time, a police car had just entered the parking lot of the motel. She rested the back of her head against her seat and closed her eyes.

'Oh God...' she loudly sighed in relief, resting her hand of her chest; her heart was still beating like a jackhammer.

'You could say that again...' Dean replied, not taking his focus off the road for a second. From the outside, he may have looked calm, but from the inside he was freaking out just as much as Renee did. However, if there was one thing he had learned from his troubling past, it was that you always had to stay calm, no matter how stressful the situation was.

'So what's the plan now?' Renee asked. 'Do you know where we're going?'

Dean shook his head. 'I don't have a single damn clue. But don't worry, okay? We just have stay one step ahead of them. I'm going to make sure they're not going to catch us.'

For now, to be exact.


	14. Desperate Measures

**Chapter 14**

 **Desperate Measures**

Despite the fact that they were now many miles away from the motel, Renee couldn't help but often look in the outside mirror to see if they were being followed. She expected a police car to appear at any moment, forcing them to pull over, the police officer slapping the handcuffs on them with a smug grin on his face and let the judge do the rest of the work, who would most likely put them behind bars for the rest of their lives unless they received the death penalty. A heavy chill ran up Renee's spine when she thought about it. Death penalty... God, it terrified her. She didn't want to die just yet, it would be so fucking unfair if she would indeed end up in that one chair every criminal dreaded. Her life was only starting now... but for how long will it last if they had to run from the cops every single day, she wondered.

Dean only stopped driving when they arrived at the only diner that they saw during this half-hour car ride. Much to their relief, the partners in crime didn't see a police car parked at the parking lot. During the car ride, the sun had climbed higher into the sky, causing the temperature to rise mercilessly. It was mid-summer, so of course you could expect that the inside of a car would be comparable to an oven in a matter of time. Thankfully Dean and Renee were greeted with a little pleasant breeze when they got out of the car. While wiping the sweat off his forehead, Dean planned on turning on the car's air conditioner when they would get back inside.

Entering the diner, they immediately noticed that this place didn't receive many customers in a long while. The atmosphere was downright dreary; the last time the floor had been mopped was probably a month ago, most of the tables had stains on them and the chef was probably an ex-criminal who sought for a normal life in society after spending God knows how long in prison. This place was absolutely disgusting, but Dean was pretty sure they weren't going to eat at a better diner for the rest of the morning.

Their breakfast came fifteen minutes after they had ordered it. Even while feasting on the bland pancakes, Renee couldn't help but often glance at the diner's entrance, expecting a cop to burst in and arrest them.

'Renee, for God's sake, you can calm down now!' Dean said with a hushed tone in his voice, making sure the chef wouldn't hear this conversation. 'They're not going to find us here!'

'I honestly want to believe that, Dean...' Renee murmured when she cut off a piece from her pancake. 'It's just that... I can't help but shake that feeling off, you know...'

Dean let out an annoyed sigh. 'Look, I understand you are still tensed up from what happened, but paranoia isn't going to help you, it's not going to help me either. We are safe for now, let's keep that in mind. As long as we keep moving and act calm, nobody's going to catch us, got it?'

Renee stared at her plate and nodded. 'Yeah. So... what's the plan for now? Where are we going?'

'We'll just have to see.' Dean replied. 'As so far as I'm concerned, we have to keep moving and stay calm no matter what happens. We can't stay at one spot for too long, that would be too risky. If we travel big distances, it will be harder for the cops to trace us, so we should definitely do that.'

'Okay...' So that would mean they were forced to spend most of the time on the road... Renee could already imagine them sleeping inside the car at night (which would most likely result their backs to ache in the morning upon awakening) and her practically using her suitcase as her closet. This is not how Renee imagined her new life to be, but if this was the only solution to stay out of reach from the police... then she guessed she would have to get used to this 'lifestyle'.

Dean immediately noticed the doubt on her face. 'I know this might be tough for you, but right now-'

'No no, it's okay, I understand. I think... it's just that I'm going to need a little bit of time to get used to this.'

But it didn't take long for Renee to realize that she would have to get used to this situation at this very moment.

* * *

'Damn it!' Dean exclaimed in annoyance when he looked at the fuel gauge, interrupting his focus on the long road in front of them for a second. He saw something that every driver hated to see; the small red arrow was almost pointed at the much hated 'E'.

Dean's voice caused Renee to snap out of her thoughts and look up in surprise. 'What's the matter?' she asked.

'We're almost out of gas.' Dean mumbled. 'We've got to get some as soon as we see a gas station in this goddamn wasteland...'

It was indeed like Dean and Renee were driving through a seemingly endless wasteland. They had been driving for nearly half an hour now and they had only spotted five or six cars during the entire trip. That miserable diner was also the last sign of life they were going to see, which they didn't realize when they exited the place. During the car ride, Dean was tormented with a really bad stomach ache that would act up every couple of minutes. The bacon he ate was way too greasy and tasted like rubber; he hoped that damn diner would burn down to the ground one day, along with that lousy chef. But right now there wasn't any time to pay attention to his painful stomach, all that Dean wanted to do now was to find a proper gas station to get some fuel. That is, if he could find one. For the next few minutes, Dean and Renee were unable to spot one gas station... and the red arrow was getting dangerously closer to the 'E', which only build up the stress more. If they weren't going to find a gas station any time soon, they would be left stranded at the side of the road and since none of them had a cell phone, they would possibly wait an eternity for a tow truck to help them out, which would most likely result into their arrest if the driver would recognize them.

'Hey, look over here!' Renee suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the side of the road. 'There's a gas station!'

Looking to his right, Dean found out that fate decided to give him a lucky break for once. A gas station was indeed located on the right side of the road, it looked small and a bit old, but it had appeared just in time and had gasoline nonetheless. 'About fucking time...' Dean mumbled, turning on his blinker; if they had continued to drive any further, they would've run out of fuel for sure.

He stopped next to a petrol pump and turned off the engine, abruptly ending the humming noise that was heard inside the car for the entire trip.

'Hold on, I'll be back in a second.' Dean said before exiting the vehicle. There was a heavy smell of gasoline lingering around the gas station, something you'd expect smelling on places like these. Damn, it felt good to be able to stretch his legs for a moment. It was still hot outside, but thanks to the air conditioning inside the car, the heat had become a little bit more bearable. While filling the car up with fresh gasoline, Dean glanced at Renee, who was staring at the distance in front of her. He wondered what was going on inside her mind. Was she able and willing to cope with his survival methods? If she still wanted to stick with him and keep out of reach from the police, she was going to have to. There was no other way.

Dean decided to gas the car up for fifty dollars, that should be enough for now. Dean headed to the entrance of the gas station, already retrieving the wallet out of the pocket of his jeans. The slide doors parted in front of him as he entered. Just like the outside, the interior of the gas station looked worn down and small; the coffee machine hadn't been used in ages, Dean was sure the bags with chips and cookies that were stacked in the shelves were getting close to their expiring dates, a crackly song that was heard from the radio was supposed the make the atmosphere more pleasant and the man in his late fifties standing behind the pay desk looked like he would have a fight with his wife every single goddamn day. Dean sure hoped as hell he hadn't been watching the news lately.

'Hey, I'd like to pay for the gas.' Dean said.

The man nodded and pressed some buttons on the cash register that must've been used for many years, judging by the yellowish stains on the plastic. Dean noticed he had to squint his eyes to see on which buttons he was pressing; perhaps this man's age caused his sight to slowly starting letting him down. 'Right, that'll be fifty dollars.' he grumbled. Dean actually couldn't blame this guy for his peevish mood; working in a shit-hole like this would make everyone curse his life.

Much to Dean's shock, he found out that he had barely enough money to pay for the gas; there was only ten dollars left after he had paid. Damn it, he thought he had enough money to come around for a while... turned out he was wrong. After Dean wished the man a good day, he exited the gas station and got back inside the car. Renee immediately saw the worried expression on his face.

'Is there something wrong?' she asked. 'Did something happen inside?'

'We're almost out of money, Renee.' Dean decided to get straight to the point. Because after all, most of that money had been the money Renee had earned during her forced prostitution days.

'Oh damn... are you serious? Jesus Christ Dean, we've only been traveling together for two days and we're almost going to be broke, how is that even possible? Shit, I thought we had enough money...'

'Well, that's what I thought too. Turns out it was just enough to pay the dinners, the breakfasts, the motel room and the gas. Fuck...'

Renee let out a sigh. 'I almost wanted to say that we could always get some cash from James' bank account, but then it will be easier for the police to find us, right?'

'You're damn right about that. They will snatch our asses from the road in the blink of an eye if we do that.'

Staring at the lonely ten dollar bill in the wallet, Dean's brain sought for the perfect solution to get more cash. There was no fucking way he was going to send Renee back into the prostitution for this, no, she had been in that hell once and he didn't want her to go back in there. Getting a job wasn't going to be that easy when you're a wanted criminal. Then what the hell was he going to do to solve this issue? While he continued to think, Dean glanced at the glove compartment; the spot where he had hidden the pistol.

He had a weapon, the sight of the man he had paid earlier was probably everything but good and there had to be some money inside that cash register.

All the pieces seemed to fall in place.

Fine then. They had no other choice anyway.

Renee caught Dean staring at the glove compartment; she too knew that the pistol was in there. 'If that's the only way, then do it.' she suddenly said.

Dean couldn't help but blink his eyes in surprise. What the fuck, was she able to read his mind or something?

'Go get the money if you want, but please make sure you don't hurt that guy. He doesn't deserve to die, he hasn't done anything to us. Just scare him and that would be more than enough, if he will see the pistol he will hand over the money for sure. So don't hurt him, okay?'

Dean stared at Renee for a few seconds without saying anything, then opened the glove compartment and pulled out the pistol. Without any hesitation, he exited the car, rushed back inside, walked over to the pay desk and immediately aimed the gun at the man he had paid fifty dollars a few moments ago. He had to squint his eyes once again to see what he was exactly pointing at him; upon realizing what it was, his face expressed nothing more but pure shock. This confirmed Dean's theory of the man being visually impaired, which convinced him more that he was unable to clearly see his face... or the license plate of the car, for that matter.

'Give me all the money you have or I'll put a bullet through your head!' Dean shouted. 'Hurry up, open the goddamn cash register! Now!'

'Alright, alright!' the man whimpered, widening his eyes in fear. 'J-just hold on, please don't hurt me! I-I got a wife and-'

'Do I look like I give a fuck about that? Just hurry up, will you?! I swear to God, I'll kill you if you don't give me that fucking money!'

Dean watched as the man opened the cash register with trembling hands, he could already see a few hundred dollar bills among the other dollar bills. Then he noticed some plastic bags hanging near the pay desk.

'Put the money in one of those bags!' he commanded.

The man quickly nodded, grabbed all the dollar bills that were inside the cash register, took a plastic bag, put all the money inside it and handed it over to Dean. He immediately snatched it out of his hand and stormed out of the gas station, leaving the man with a traumatic experience he would possibly never forget.

Dean got inside the car, slammed the door shut and tossed the bag with money on Renee's lap. 'Hold onto this! Don't drop it! And put your seatbelt on!'

He started the engine and the partners in crime immediately drove away with screeching tires and a dazzling speed as adrenaline rushed through both their bodies, expanding their trail of fear and terror they had created together.


	15. In Cold Blood

**Chapter 15**

 **In Cold Blood**

While her heart was still beating like a jackhammer in her chest, Renee counted the stolen money inside the plastic back. Her throat felt dry due to all the adrenaline slamming through every vein in her body, she could barely control her trembling fingers as she counted the money out loud.

'Hundred... two hundred... three hundred... three hundred and fifty... three hundred and seventy... four hundred dollars. Is that all that was in there, Dean? Was that all the money he had? For God's sake, slow down for a minute!'

'I can't right now, Renee!' Dean snarled. His focus was glued to the road in front of them, he had clenched his fists around the steering wheel so hard that his healing knuckles had colored white. 'Unless you want to be caught, I'll fucking slow down!'

'But if we end up in an accident, it will be even harder for us to get away, don't you think?!'

Damn it, she had a point in that. Dean was already driving way past the speed limit, if he kept up like this he would most likely lose control over the car at one point and crash, killing or injuring them; that would definitely not help them with escaping. Dean slightly lifted his foot from the gas pedal, slightly decreasing the speed. The roaring sound of the engine filled up every empty spot inside their heads, it was loud enough to overlap their loud heartbeats. For a little moment, Renee thought she was going to lose control over her breathing, just like back in the apartment where she killed James. Her breathing grew more shallow as black spots started to cloud her sight as she tried so hard to regain control over her breathing. Dean heard her breathing.

'Goddamn it, Renee! Don't you dare to fucking hyperventilate on me now!' he said, not breaking his focus on the road for one second. 'You gotta stay with me, okay?! Listen to me, concentrate on your breathing, count to ten or something! Just count to ten, Renee!'

Dean apparently had no idea that this tactic was the tactic Renee used when she was forced to have sex with a customer back in the darkest days of her life. It helped her to get her mind off the sexual abuse back then, so perhaps this could also help her to control her breathing before she would pass out... Renee closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind as much as possible, only focusing on the numbers, just like she did in the past. One, two, three, four... Her breathing started to slow down, thank God, it was working. Renee continued to count.. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... She repeated this over and over again, until her breathing had completely gone back to normal. When she opened her eyes, the black spots had faded away. Renee let out a soft sigh and rested the back of her head against the seat.

'Are you alright now?' Dean asked.

Renee nodded. 'Yeah...' she replied with a soft voice.

'Good. Trust me when I say that you have to keep calm no matter what, Renee. Freaking out isn't going to get you anywhere, it's only going to make things worse.'

'How come you can remain so calm?' Renee asked. 'I have never seen you breaking a sweat, how is that even possible?'

Dean briefly chuckled. 'Well, I guess it's a talent of mine. Where I came from all kinds of messed up stuff happened, there was no point in freaking out. You had to stay calm and fight back if you had to.'

'Really?'

'Mm-hmm.' Dean nodded. 'I had to learn that from an early age. I didn't have to expect any help from my parents if some little douchebag who lived a couple of blocks away would beat me up whenever I walked by. You gotta learn to stand up for yourself as soon as possible and keep calm as much as possible, that's how I survived. That's how everyone I knew survived.'

Damn... Renee wished she had learned to do that as well when she had the chance. She had always been rather passive as a child, never talking back to her grandmother whenever she gave her a lecture or when a bully at school used the untimely deaths of her parents against her to hurt her. Renee wondered if she had been a different person if she hadn't been so passive.

Then she suddenly realized something, which caused her to slightly widen her eyes in shock.

'We have to switch cars!' she exclaimed.

'Say what?'

'That guy at the gas station could've seen the license plate! Who knows, maybe he has written it down already!'

'Can't be. His eye sight was shit, I'm sure of it, I have seen it!'

'How can you be so sure about that, Dean? If he has seen the license plate, then he had seen your face as well! If we don't switch cars, people are going to look for a red Mercedes everywhere, believe me on that!'

Dean breathed out through his clenched teeth. Goddamn it, she was right about that. Back there in that gas station, he had just simply assumed that the eye sight of the man was bad, robbing him without something to cover his face was a very bold, and perhaps even a very stupid move. They had been driving for a few miles and miraculously no police car had appeared behind them, but still, he couldn't take any more risks. For a little moment, it was quiet inside the car.

'Alright.' Dean suddenly said. 'I have an idea. But you have to help me with this.'

Before Renee could answer, Dean drove the vehicle to the side of the road as far as possible and parked there.

'Okay, this is the plan.' Dean said with a calm voice, making sure Renee was going to understand everything about this. 'We have to pretend that the car has broken down. If you stand there and try to make a car pull over, I'll hide behind the car. As soon as another car has pulled over, we just take that one and get the hell out. Simple as that. You got it?'

That sounded easy enough. Renee nodded. 'And... is that all that needs to happen?' she asked.

'Yup. Now come on, let's go. The longer we stay in here, the more time we waste.'

The partners in crime got out of the car and were immediately greeted with merciless summer heat; the temperature inside the car mixed with the adrenaline had made the trip almost unbearable. Renee almost wished Dean had stolen a bottle of water along with the money during that robbery. Like he said he would, Dean hid behind the vehicle in a crouched position.

'Come on, get over there!' he said when he briefly peeked at Renee, pointing at the area behind the vehicle. 'Put your thumb up!'

Renee rolled her eyes in mild annoyance, but at the same time she understood that the clock was ticking; if the man back at the gas station had indeed seen their license plate, the police could find them at any moment. There weren't many cars driving here, so they could spot an old red Mercedes with the matching license plate with ease. Renee hoped from the bottom of her heart that they weren't the only travelers in this wasteland. Standing a few meters away from the car, Renee put up her thumb. Now it was only a matter of time before someone would see her.

Minutes slowly ticked by, but so far nobody had dared to approach her. Renee could feel a trickle of sweat running down her jaw line as her throat became drier by the minute. She wondered how Dean was holding up behind the car, perhaps he had taken his leather jacket off by now, unless he wanted to pass out with a heatstroke. No police car had appeared yet as well... perhaps Dean was right when he had assumed that his eye sight was bad. But then again, as more minutes passed, Renee started to get more worried. Jesus, what if they had to spend the entire day next to the road to wait for a new escape car? It was afternoon already and the temperature increased more. Renee arm started to become sore, she only stopped giving the thumb up to wipe away the sweat on her forehead. By this point, Renee would kill someone for a bottle of water.

Then, she saw something approaching them in the distance. As the metallic object got closer, Renee squinted her eyes to see what it actually was. A car! Thank God, finally! Renee almost wanted to grin in victory, but she shouldn't celebrate just yet; now the driver had to be willing to give her a helping hand... Renee waved with her arm, hoping that the driver would see her. And apparently, it did indeed work. The vehicle slowed down when it got closer to her and drove to the side of the road, parking just a few meters away from her. The driver's door opened and a man in his early forties stepped out.

'Hey! What seems to be the problem, miss?' he asked.

Now it was time for Renee to put her acting skills to her advantage. 'Oh thank God, finally someone showed up!' she exclaimed, trying to sound as convincing as possible. 'I have been standing here for hours! My car broke down and my cell phone isn't working, could you please help me?'

'Well yeah, of course! A fine-looking young lady like you shouldn't stand in this heat for so long.'

'Oh, thank you!'

'Hold on, let me get something for you.'

The man quickly grabbed a bottle of water from the car and closed the door. When the man walked towards Renee, she noticed how friendly his face looked. He didn't have any doubt to help a woman like her in need, hell, Renee was sure he wasn't afraid to help anybody.

'Here you go.' the man said, handing over the bottle of water. 'You must be thirsty from standing here for such a long time.'

Renee smiled and nodded. 'Thank you very much!' As soon as she took a gulp from the fresh, cold water, her throat didn't feel dry anymore. She gave the bottle back to the man.

'There, better now?' he asked.

'Yes, thank you.'

Oh my God, he was so friendly... Renee dearly hoped Dean wouldn't do anything to hurt this man. It was most likely that he had a cell phone, so he could always call for help after his car would be taken. They were going to steal his car... Renee felt horrible all of a sudden. This man offered help to a total stranger and he was about to get robbed from his vehicle; it made her feel awful. But at least he could get help, that made her feel a little bit better.

'Do you know anything about the engine? I think that's the problem.' Renee said in an attempt to make her story more believable.

'Oh, I do know quite a lot about that stuff! I used to be a mechanic back in the old days, so let me a look at that.'

Renee and the man walked towards the 'broken down' car. As they got closer to the front, Renee heard barely audible footsteps going around the vehicle; Dean must be sneaking around it. This man didn't deserve to be hurt, she hoped Dean wouldn't be too rough on him. He didn't hurt or kill the man back in the gas station either, so it was very likely that the sight of the pistol would be enough for him to hand over the vehicle.

'Alright, let's open this baby up!' the man said. 'Wow, this is actually a very nice car you have there, miss. Ah, I remember I used to have a car like this when I-'

Grating sand was heard behind them, followed by a loud bang that nearly deafened Renee's ears, causing her to clench her eyes shut for a moment. She heard a dull thud. Looking down, Renee widened her eyes and let out a loud shriek of horror. The man was lying in the sand with two holes in his head, one on his forehead, one in the back of his hand. Blood trickled out of both holes, forming two small pools. Looking up, Renee saw Dean standing behind the corpse... with the pistol in his hand. Smoke curled from the tip.

'No!' Renee screamed at the top of her lungs. 'Dean, what the fuck?! What... what have you done?!'

'Just get your stuff from the car and let's get out of here!' Dean replied, unmoved by her shock. 'Come on, hurry!'

Knowing that time was ticking, Renee opened the trunk of her car and retrieved her suitcase with tears burning in her eyes. Before she and Dean walked towards the dead man's car, she glanced one more time at his corpse. The pools of blood had grown bigger.

'I'm so sorry...' Renee whispered. 'Please forgive me...'

Dean and Renee entered the man's car and immediately sped off, leaving yet again a gruesome crime scene behind them. Renee had never felt so guilty in her entire life.


	16. Alone

**Chapter 16**

 **Alone**

'Dean!' Renee shouted hysterically. 'What the fuck is wrong with you?!'

They were a few miles away from the grisly crime scene that had taken place a few moments ago. Sitting on the passenger's seat in the freshly stolen car, Renee wasn't planning on holding her rage back. She still couldn't believe what had happened a few moments ago; Dean had shot an innocent man in cold blood. Killed him like he was nothing. Goddamn it, that man was so nice to her, he didn't hesitate to help her out with her 'problem', he didn't deserve to die like this! Who knows, maybe he had a wife and kids waiting for him back home, they were definitely going to be worried sick when he wasn't going to show up during the following hours, only receiving that one phone call at night or the following morning, when the police or a passerby had found the body. Good God, that harrowing thought made the guilt that made Renee's throat feel like it was stuffed with sand even more suffocating. His family had no idea that he was lying next to a nearly abandoned road in a pool of his own blood and a bullet in his head. Renee seriously had to do her best to not let out a scream of agony. This was all her fault, goddamn it, she was the cause of this... if he had never stopped for her, he would still be alive by now.

But guilt wasn't the only thing Renee was feeling at this moment. She was beyond infuriated at Dean.

He was the one who pulled the trigger, it was because of him that the man's helpfulness became his ruin. Renee had expected he would scare him by just showing the pistol or at least knock him out, but this... oh Jesus, this was insane! That man didn't have to die for this!

'What do you mean?' Dean asked, sounding surprisingly calm for someone who just shot a man a few moments ago. 'The plan worked, we got a new car and we got out what should be wrong with me?'

So careless... it angered Renee even more.

'You know goddamn well what I'm talking about! You... You killed that man!'

'Yeah, so what?'

Renee couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could somebody be so damn heartless and uncaring?! It was like this didn't mean anything to him, as if he would kill a man each day as some twisted daily activity! But then Renee suddenly realized that Dean had already killed three people in the past, his wife, her lover and the man who harassed her back at the motel... perhaps he had gotten used to committing murder. A heavy chill ran up her spine, it was so heavy that it was almost painful. But the rage quickly took the upper hand.

'So what?! So what?!' Renee shouted in sheer disbelief. There was no reason for you to shoot him, Dean! He wasn't doing anything to us!'

'Renee, if I had let him live, he would've ratted us out to the cops! There was no other way! We can't have any witnesses!' Dean shouted back. The adrenaline mixed with the temperature inside the car would be enough to agitate anybody, and right now Renee's yelling wasn't helping a bit.

'There could've been another way! You could've knocked him out or something!'

'That wouldn't help. If he would wake up, he would've called the cops anyway! Is that what you want?!'

'No, but... Goddamn it, Dean! He was innocent!'

'How could you possibly fucking know that?! That guy could've had a dead hooker or a whole stash of drugs in the trunk of his car for all that mattered. This is all about survival! He just was at the wrong place at the wrong time, end of story.'

'Oh, so that's how you justify it! He could've had a wife and children, Dean! Who knows, maybe he-'

'Jesus Christ, do you think I really care about that, Renee?!' Dean yelled angrily. 'I don't give a flying fuck if that guy had a family! This is about us and about us only! If you want to survive, you have to think only about yourself and not give a damn about others. That's the best way to do it, I have always done it like that!'

'Ha, so that tells a lot about you then! You selfish prick!'

'Me, a selfish prick?!' Dean turned his head and looked at Renee. She could suppress a gasp just in time; she had never seen somebody's eyes expressing so much anger, Dean's big blue eyes were piercing straight through her soul; it was almost terrifying to look at them. 'You ungrateful bitch! If it weren't for me, you would still be stuck there in that shit-hole being slapped around by your pimp! I offered you to come with me so you could get out of there! If I were a selfish prick, I would've never asked you that and let you rot there and be fucked by all those scumbags for the rest of your life! Besides, what's the big fucking problem anyway?! You didn't have any problem with killing James, did you?! You were the one who wanted to make sure he wouldn't follow us!'

'That was a whole different story!' Renee yelled back as hard as she could. 'That bastard ruined my life! He abused me, he raped me! He was the one who deserved to die, not that guy back there!'

'Oh, get the fuck over it already, Renee! That guy is dead, it's done! Now shut the hell up and let me focus!'

Renee thought she was going to explode with anger, she swore she had never been this angry in her entire life. She can't believe that the man who had saved her from her nightmarish situation was in fact a dangerous sociopath who cared about nobody's safety but himself. It wouldn't possibly last long until he was going to put his own safety above hers... She had enough. She had enough of all of this!

'Stop the car. I want to get out.' Renee said with a clipped voice.

'No!' Dean snarled. 'We keep going!'

'Dean. Stop. The. Car. Now.'

'Didn't I tell you to shut up already?! God, you are such a pain in the-'

'I said: stop the fucking car, you asshole!' Renee screamed at the top of her lungs. She launched forward and roughly pulled Dean's arm in attempt to drive the car towards the side of the road.

'What are you doing?! Are you fucking crazy?!' Dean exclaimed. He yanked his arm away from Renee's grip. But when he focused his eyes on the road in front of him again, he saw that they were heading straight for the side way too fast. He rotated the steering wheel as fast as he could in attempt to regain control, causing the tires of the vehicle to produce a loud screeching noise. Then Dean stomped on the brake as hard as he could, which nearly caused Renee to be flung out of her seat. She noticed they had stopped right on the side of the road, just like she had planned to do. Looking to her left, she saw Dean staring in front of him, loudly breathing in and breathing out through his nose.

He had finally reached his boiling point.

'Right... You wanna get out...?' he hissed. He suddenly turned his head, his eyes expressing more rage than before. 'Then get the hell out!'

He opened the driver's door, stepped out, walked around the car, opened the passenger's door and roughly grabbed Renee's arm. With one pull, he dragged her out of the vehicle. Renee nearly tripped over her own feet, but managed to keep her balance.

'Hey, ow! Let go of me!'

Without saying anything back, Dean opened the trunk, grabbed Renee's suitcase and tossed it onto the sand without giving a single damn about possibly damaging her belongings.

'My stuff! Have you gone insane?!' Renee exclaimed.

Still too angry to say anything, Dean walked to the passenger's side, retrieved a hundred dollar bill from the plastic bag and practically shoved it into Renee's hand. 'There you go, do whatever the fuck you want with this, I don't care one bit! I'm sick of this shit! You're on your own now! Have a nice fucking life, Renee!'

Renee coldly glared right back at Dean. 'You too, Dean Ambrose.'

Dean turned around, got inside the car, slammed the driver's door shut and drove away without even bothering to glance at her in the rear view mirror for once. Renee watched until he had completely vanished out of her sight.

So that was it then.

She was all alone now, but Renee was too mad to even care about that. There she was, standing in the middle of nowhere in the heat, with only hundred dollars and a suitcase full of clothes. How long had she been standing on her spot now? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes, perhaps? She didn't know.

'Bastard.' Renee suddenly mumbled, breaking the silence that had been lingering around her.

Fine then. She was going to do this alone. She picked up her suitcase and started walking.

This was possibly going to be the longest walk she would have in her life...


	17. Flip The Switch

**Chapter 17**

 **Flip The Switch**

Oh God, she would kill someone for a bottle of water now.

Renee swore that she had never been sweating so much in her entire life. Her arm had become slightly sore due to carrying her suitcase for many minutes straight. She had been walking on the side of the road for half an hour and hadn't spotted a single sign of life. Not one car had passed her by in this godforsaken wasteland.

Abandoned and thirsty as hell, she mentally cursed Dean Ambrose.

Despite the fact that he had left her in here in the heat, Renee would so much rather be alone then traveling with a cold-hearted, self-centered killer like him. Damn it, she should've left on the night she discovered he had already killed his wife and her lover. She felt so stupid for sympathizing him; sympathizing with a killer was possibly the worst thing she had ever done. Goddamn it, she should've gotten into the car and driven to the police station in a nearby town to report that son of a bitch. But then again, if Renee would've showed up there, they would've recognized her for sure and arrested her on the spot. And perhaps Renee wouldn't have made it to the police station anyway; that pervert on the parking lot could've possibly kidnapped her and hurt her in the worst possible way if Dean hadn't showed up to save her. That was the second time he had saved her from the hands of a repulsive man...

Renee shook her head. Dean didn't deserve the reputation of a knight in shining armor; he was nothing more but a monster.

Letting out a sigh, Renee stared at the crumpled hundred dollar bill she was still holding in her sweaty hand, since she didn't have any pockets in her dress. What was she going to do with this? Dean said that he didn't give a damn about what she would do with the money before he took off, so she didn't have to worry about that. Maybe she could hire a motel room with this so she could have at least have a place to stay, even if it wouldn't last for long. Renee knew she also had to buy food with this money. Shit, she was going to be broke by the end of the week, she was convinced about that. Maybe there could be a way of earning a bit more money... But what options would she have? A normal job like working in a retail store or something like that would most likely result into her arrest. Then she had to do something else, perhaps something she didn't prefer to do... A chill ran over Renee's spine as she felt her stomach clenching together. No. There was no way in hell she was going to return to the disgusting, humiliating world of prostitution, she swore she would rather die than letting a total stranger enter her body. But then what other choice did she have? Renee groaned in frustration, unsure about what she was going to do next; uncertainty was one of the things she hated most.

Just then, after walking for one more mile, she saw a large, dark green sign in the distance. Squinting her eyes, she attempted to read what it said.

'Hmm... Heyton Town...' Renee mumbled. Upon closer inspection, she saw that she only had to walk just a little bit more, two more miles; Renee hoped she could endure the pain in her arm for a little while longer. Hallelujah, there was finally some civilization in this wasteland after all. 'Let's hope it has something useful...'

The honking of a car made Renee snap out of her thoughts. For a moment she thought Dean had come back for her, but if that was indeed the case, she had absolutely no intention of getting back into the car with him. Turning around, Renee saw a rusty truck that must've been used for dozens of years; it wasn't Dean, thank God about that. The mud-stained window of the passenger's door went down and a man in his late thirties with an unkempt beard and baseball cap peeked his head outside. Almost immediately he reminded Renee of the man who had harassed her at the parking lot of Motel Sunset View. When the man smiled at her, she saw that he was missing both of his front teeth, making her instantly feel uncomfortable. He must have a companion with him, she realized. He was sitting in the passenger's seat, so someone had to be driving this godforsaken piece of scrap metal.

'Hello there, girly!' the man greeted. 'What's a beauty like you doin' all alone on the side of the road? Get in here, you can have a ride with us!'

Renee tried her best to smile politely at the poor bastard. She shook her head. 'No thanks, I'm doing fine on my own. I kind of want to travel on my own right now, you know...'

'Oh, I see...' The man pointed at her suitcase. 'Did your hubby leave you here?'

'Sort of. It wasn't my husband, but... it doesn't matter. I was the one who chose to go, actually.'

'Must've been a real bastard then if he wanted to make you go out here in the goddamn heat!'

Renee nodded. He could say that again...

'But are you sure you don't want a ride, girly? The nearest place I can bring you to is Heyton Town, it's not too far away!'

'Yeah, I'm sure. I will be fine, but thanks for the offer anyway.'

The man ran his fingers through his tangled beard for a brief moment. 'Alrighty then. But be careful out there, there are a lotta filthy fuckers out there who want to hurt a pretty lady like you. Think you can handle 'em on your own?'

Renee nodded. 'Don't worry about it, I'll be okay.'

'Well, good luck then! God bless ya! Let's go, Trevor.'

The man closed the window and a few seconds later, the rusty truck drove away with a spluttering noise coming from the exhaust along with a thick black cloud of smoke. As she watched until the truck disappeared out of her sight, Renee hoped this friendly guy and his companion (who she assumed was this Trevor person) wouldn't come across Dean.

* * *

Well... Heyton Town actually looked kind of cozy, much to Renee's surprise. It was most likely that the summery weather contributed to that atmosphere. This had to be the longest and most tiring walk she ever had, but at least she had made it.

Thos town looked like your average all-American town, it was small, but she was pretty sure that the community was tight-knit one way or another; if one resident would slip up on something, everyone would know about it the following day, it was that kind of town. Looking around her, Renee kind of felt like an intruder, showing up out of the blue like that with a suitcase and all. Even if they weren't doing it, it felt like everyone who was outside at this moment, from the little boy who was riding his bike on the sidewalk to the man exiting a hardware store, was staring at her, knowing what she had been and done in the past. An ex-prostitute, a victim of abuse, a killer, a fugitive the police looked everywhere for... it was impossible for them to know about this unless they had watched the news lately. Renee decided to not stay for too long here; she would have something to eat and look for a motel or something that came close to that to stay for a day or so, perhaps she would only stay for the night.

Renee started to explore Heyton Town. She saw a bakery, a hardware store, an antique shop, a pharmacy, a record shop, a furniture shop and a pet shop, but nothing about this town really caught her eye. Heyton Town was definitely the kind of town old people would move to for their rest and spend their last days in peace, but Renee already knew she would be bored out of her mind here, even if she would reach that age one day. No, she wanted to live somewhere more lively... but that was going to be hard if you are a fugitive. Hell, that was going to be impossible, even.

After a little while, Renee saw something she had hoped to find here. A diner. It was a small diner, but hell, it was a diner either way. Now if they would sell cold drinks over there, it was all that Renee needed to be pleased. As she entered the diner, she hoped that a cop, or Dean for that matter, wouldn't be a customer at the moment.

The interior of the diner looked clean, as if it had been cleaned a few moments ago. It looked like this place wasn't really that popular in this town, because Renee only saw two people, a young couple, eating their lunch while having a barely audible conversation. What Renee also noticed was that there were no waitresses here... were they on their break right now? But she didn't care much about that, to be honest. Renee walked to an empty table and sat down, letting out a tired sigh. Ugh, it felt so good to sit down after such a long walk. She put her suitcase next to her and rubbed her sore arm. Finally she could get some rest... Renee grabbed the menu in front of her and studied the offered dishes; she considered ordering a glass of water and maybe a steak with fries. Hell, she felt like she kind of deserved that after everything she went through. With a pensive look on her face, she stared at the dollar bill she was still holding. Was a hundred dollars going to be enough to make it to the end of the week? Renee highly doubted it. Then what could she do to earn a bit more money to help her out? God, she just didn't know.

Just as Renee wondered what the hell she was going to do, a loud, angry voice made her look up.

'Goddamn it! Why do I have to date the dumbest bitch Heyton Town has to offer?!'

It turned out the conversation the young couple had escalated. Renee watched as the girl immediately cringed upon hearing those cruel words, clenching her eyes shut and covering her mouth with both hands. But this didn't stop her boyfriend (or fiancé, for that matter) from verbally abusing her even more.

'How fucking hard is it to say yes or no to my question?! Dear God, are you really that fucking stupid?! See what I told you, I told you were a fucking dumbass! Look at you, you're pathetic, just like your mom! Pathetic, I tell you!' he shouted at the top of his lungs, not caring if everyone in this diner heard him.

By this point, the girl was trembling all over. Renee could feel her heart breaking for this poor girl, dear God, she looked like a beaten dog. Her self-confidence and dignity, or at least what was left of it, was mercilessly being crushed into dust. Renee could feel her pain, she knew exactly what she was feeling; if you would hear your abusive piece of shit of a boyfriend say things like that every day, you would turn into a total mess as well. Then the girl got up from her seat and rushed towards the diner's bathroom, sobbing uncontrollably. After she closed the door behind her, her boyfriend scoffed in contempt. 'Stupid bitch.' he carelessly mumbled before continuing to eat his lunch.

It felt like something snapped inside Renee's head.

She didn't exactly know how to describe it, but it felt like a hand had reached inside her mind and flipped some sort of switch. This son of a bitch didn't deserve to live. That girl deserved to live a normal life without him, without the verbal abuse she could very well receive every day. No woman, no matter what, shouldn't deal with this. Renee instantly remembered the abuse she had suffered by James' hands, back in the darkest days of her life. She had experienced it all; physical, emotional, and let's not forget, sexual. James had left deep scars inside her... and she would forever hate him for that. This guy right here wasn't any better than James. Men like him shouldn't call themselves men, they didn't have the fucking right to do that.

This man wasn't worthy to live.

'Hey there.'

Renee saw the man grinning at her. 'What's a good-looking woman like you doing here in this shithole? You look even prettier than most girls around here, even more than my girlfriend... but hell, she's a piece of shit anyway.' And as if he made a good joke, the man briefly laughed.

Unbelievable... this pig wasn't even afraid of flirting with other women when his girlfriend wasn't around... However, this worked out perfectly for Renee. She decided to play his game, for a little while.

This was her chance to rid that girl of this son of a bitch.

Renee tried to smile as seductively as possible at the man. 'Thank God I found a handsome guy like you around here...' she replied. 'Say, what do you think of getting out of here? Maybe we could have a bit of fun together...'

The man chuckled, grinning from ear to ear. 'Sounds good to me. Let's go, my girlfriend will pay the check.'

While Renee nodded at him, she managed to carefully grab the knife that had been put there along with a spoon and fork and slip it underneath her panties; she wished she had the time to pick a dress with pockets this morning. They both got up and exited the diner together. That girl didn't have to suffer any longer, Renee thought before going outside.

'Let's go into that alley over there.' the man said, pointing at an alley not for away from the diner. 'Nobody will ever see us there.'

'Good idea!' The less people will see her, the better.

They walked towards the alley and entered it. The alley had a dead end, so they walked all the way to the back so nobody would spot them here... which Renee was very pleased with. She looked over her shoulder, making sure that there would be no witnesses. So far, they were all alone. Once they reached the back, Renee pushed the man against the wall with a seductive grin on her face.

'Oh, feisty, aren't we?' the man chuckled.

'Trust me, darling...' Renee said. Without the man even noticing it, she trailed her fingers underneath her panties and curled them around the handle of the knife. 'You deserve everything that is coming to you now.'

Before the man could even respond, Renee pulled out the knife and slit his throat with one swift cut, cutting through his skin like butter. His eyes went wide with shock and pain as blood spurted out of the gaping cut. He opened his mouth to scream, but attempting to do this caused the blood to escape his mouth, drowning him. Renee watched with a cold look in her eyes as the man collapsed to the ground. Still trying to cry out for help, he was unable to scream, only able to produce a bubbling noise. It would only last a few seconds before the man would eventually drown in his blood, succumbing to his wound.

There. It was done.

Renee tossed the bloodied knife away. She felt so calm, it was almost surreal. She had yet again killed a man... but she didn't feel anything. It was because this bastard deserved to die in a pool of his own blood, just like James did. Not even bothering to glance at the dead body before leaving, Renee exited the alley. Looking around her, she didn't see anyone on the street. Good.

Still in a state of the surreal calmness, she went back to the diner. Entering it, she saw that her suitcase was still there and her spot hadn't been taken. Had the girl already left? Renee sat down and stared out of the window. The world had been ridden from one less abusive bastard.

Suddenly, the door of the bathroom opened and the girl appeared, her eyelids red due to the crying, still sniffling. She looked around in confusion for a little moment, then walked towards Renee.

'Excuse me...?' she asked with a slightly trembling voice. 'Have... Have you seen my boyfriend?'

'Don't worry about him, girl.' Renee replied calmly. 'You don't have to put up with scumbags like him. Trust me, you can get way better than that. So I suggest you don't bat an eye about him anymore.'

The girl stared at her in surprise, but didn't say anything. Then she walked away and exited the diner. Little did she know she had been given a second chance... albeit in a rather gruesome way.


	18. Understanding

**Chapter 18**

 **Understanding**

'Come on man, pull yourself together. This is about you, she's not worth your time.' Dean mumbled to himself.

A couple of miles away from where he had left Renee, Dean had parked the car on the side of the road and had been staring at the distance in front of him for God knows how long, fighting a raging war inside his mind. He had his hands clenched around the steering wheel and wanted to let go of it to turn on the engine and drive away, never looking back at what had happened.

She was the one who said she wanted to leave... but then why did he feel so guilty about leaving her there?

Dean had tried to shake it off, he really did, but the regret wouldn't leave him alone, traveling with him as his new companion. After he had kicked Renee out of the car, he couldn't care one bit about what would happen to her, he was so mad at her. She could be dragged into a van by some shady fucker who just happened to spot her being on her own, tortured in some hidden basement that was build for that kind of stuff and be buried in said shady fucker's backyard (which was most likely the burial place of more victims) for all he cared, he really didn't give a shit about it at the moment. She had the guts to call him a selfish prick, Dean thought he was going to explode with rage when he heard her saying that. How fucking dared she? If he had really been that selfish, he would've left her there in that shithole Rey City to spend the rest of her life in the prostitution, but he couldn't stand seeing her suffering like that. That's why he had offered her to come along with him.

Everything Dean had done was for the sake of survival. And if people had to die so he and Renee would stay out of reach from the police... then so be it. Dean would kill every single person who would cross his path if one would form a risk and put his freedom in jeopardy. No, he was not going to jail, he was more than determined about that. It was his fucking life goal, that's what it was. If Renee couldn't deal with it, well, that was her problem then. If she didn't want to travel with Dean because of this, that was fine. She got away from her pimp, she got what she wanted, now she was on her own.

However, sitting in this car... didn't feel the same anymore, for some reason.

Dean didn't know why, but it felt so weird to not be with that woman anymore. Damn it, he shouldn't have left her there. The temperature was almost unbearable at this point and she was out there in the fucking hell heat without water or anything. In an attempt to talk himself out of his guilt, Dean remembered that he had given her a hundred dollars before he left, she could've bought a drink with that money. But then again, where would she buy that? Dean had been so enraged when he sped off that he didn't even pay attention to the signs on the side of the road...

Dean groaned and shook his head.

'Oh, fuck it.' he mumbled. With one hand he let go of the steering wheel and turned on the engine. He got back on the road, made an u-turn and drove back to the way he came.

He was going to look for her; Renee didn't deserve to be out there on her own in the heat. Goddamn it, he couldn't believe he was going back for that woman. He had better things to do like getting as far as away from this place as possible, but no, first he wanted to go back and find Renee. But what if she didn't want to get in the car or if Dean couldn't find her anywhere? Well, then he had to deal with that, he guessed; he couldn't force her to come with him and she was free to go anywhere. If she was gone, she would be gone. Dean had to live with that.

As he drove to the spot where he had left Renee, Dean's eyes scanned the side of the road in the hope of catching a glimpse of the woman, but he didn't see any women with short blonde hair and a suitcase. The closer he got to that spot, the lesser the chance he would find her became. When he finally arrived, it was just like he feared for; Dean saw that Renee had left already.

'Damn...' he groaned. So she was really gone... fuck.

Dean made another u-turn and drove away, starting to accept that he may never find Renee again. Who knows, perhaps she had managed to catch a ride by hitchhiking, that is if a car happened to drive by at the moment. Or maybe she was able to get somewhere else without any help of anyone. Either way... Dean hoped Renee would be somewhere safe, he hoped she would be careful about the places she would pick. Hell, he even regretted not caring if she would get hurt...

So he was going to travel without her now... it was tough, but Dean had to live with it.

But then, a few kilometers later, he spotted something that increased the chances of finding Renee. It was a sign that he had missed earlier.

'Heyton Town, two miles...' Dean mumbled. 'Are you there, Renee?'

It could be possible that Renee had traveled to that place. It could be likely that Heyton Town had a place where she could buy something to drink and maybe even a hotel or motel. Hell, she had the money to do all of that stuff. Dean drove a bit further and then exited the main road, entering the road that would lead to Heyton Town. He knew there was a chance that Renee could be there, but he also knew that there was also a chance that she had never went to that town. Time would be wasted if it would turn out his search was pointless, but Dean couldn't shake off the guilt of leaving Renee behind. Shit... he could hardly believe he was actually going back for her.

A little while later, Dean could already see the first buildings of Heyton Town in the distance. Something inside him told him that this town was going to be boring as hell, the kind of town old people would move to in order to enjoy the last days of their retirement. The city he grew up at as a kid was far more lively compared to that kind of town, sure, the crime rate was high and he would see police cars with loud sirens passing him by each day, but he would rather live in a city like that than in a boring shithole like Heyton Town.

Finally, Dean arrived in Heyton Town. And he was right; it did look pretty fucking boring. But that didn't matter right now, he had to find Renee.

His eyes scanned the sidewalks and the buildings, but he didn't see her anywhere. 'Come on Renee, where the fuck are you?' Dean planned on not getting out of the car, since that would be too risky. He didn't doubt that the residents of this town had watched the news lately; everyone who hadn't been living under a rock lately knew that Dean Ambrose, an escaped murderer, was on the loose. Nobody would be safe until he would be arrested... or killed.

But as the minutes ticked by, Dean still hadn't caught a single glimpse of Renee. He could feel the chances of finding her slowly slipping away, he had to accept it, he had to go on without her and deal with the regret on his own. He saw a very small park in the distance, but he didn't expect to see Renee there. No, he had already given up on that hope by now. He had searched through the whole town for her, the park was the last option. If he wouldn't find her there, he would leave this goddamn town and move on, traveling all alone, like he had planned to do in the beginning before he met Renee.

But then, when he got closer, Dean once more crossed paths with the fallen angel.

He almost couldn't believe his eyes, but this was real. She was really sitting there on a bench in front of the park, her suitcase put in front of her feet and her eyes staring into the distance. Holy shit... he had found her. He couldn't believe it. He had actually fucking found her!

Dean stopped the car right in front of her and leaned to his right to lower the passenger's door window. He saw Renee rapidly blinking her eyes before her face expressed pure surprise, she opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it.

'Hey look, um...' Dean muttered. Making apologies wasn't really one of his best skills. 'Maybe I shouldn't have said all that shit to you back there. Do you still feel like going with me? But... if you don't want to, that's fine. It's up to you.'

Renee frowned her eyebrows in confusion. She glanced at her suitcase, then at her hands (that were holding a few dollar bills, possibly change from the hundred dollars she had spend) then back at Dean. Suddenly, without saying anything, she got up, picked up her suitcase and walked to the trunk of the car. She opened it and tossed the suitcase inside, then shut the trunk with a dull thud. Then she opened the passenger's door, got into the car and closed the door.

'I get it now.' Renee said. 'If killing people will extend our freedom... then so be it. But I only want to kill people who deserved to die, do you understand? They can all rot in hell for I care.'

Dean's jaw almost dropped. Holy fuck... this sounded nothing like the fallen angel he had met back in Rey City. But despite the surprise, he was glad that she finally sucked it up.

'Okay. Let's get out of here, shall we?' Dean asked.

Renee nodded. 'Gladly.'

* * *

Alright, let's see... Sanitary napkins? Always useful. Cookies? That wouldn't harm. Bread? Definitely needed. Water? Hell yes. Fruit? Well yeah, she wanted to eat healthy. Orange juice? Delicious. Milk? Hmm, maybe not, there is nothing worse than drinking spoiled milk. You shouldn't keep things that you should be kept inside a fridge inside a hot car.

Upon closer inspection, Renee saw that all the carton packages of the milk in the shelves of this grocery store had a photo of a smiling young woman printed on it, along with the word 'Missing'. AJ Lee was the missing woman's name. Upon closer inspection, Renee found out she had escaped from a psychiatric clinic and had never been found ever since. Damn... Renee hoped she would be found soon.

While she was buying food in the grocery store located in a town many miles away from Heyton Town, Dean was waiting outside for her in the car. They couldn't eat at crappy diners near the road for the rest of their lives, they had to eat some proper food as well, Renee insisted on that. It was not only food they needed, they needed some useful items as well, like sanitary napkins, bandages and paracetamol. Bullets for the pistol would be good too, but unfortunately there wasn't a gun store located in this town. The grocery store was small, but it had food regardless. The only source of music in this place was a small radio that was on the counter of the check-out corner.

When Renee was done with collecting all the food and items she and Dean would need, she walked to the check-out corner to pay for them. A girl in her mid-teens, maybe the daughter of the owner of the grocery store, scanned the products one by one. Just then, the gritty music that had been playing the entire time abruptly stopped. It was time for the news.

'Fingerprints that had been found on the knife that had been used to kill James Miller are linked to the woman who had been seen with Dean Ambrose in Rey City.' the female news reporter said with a monotone voice. 'The woman has been identified as Renee Young. Police are still searching feverishly for the two and advice citizens to keep an eye out on them. The tip that might lead to their arrest has already been raised to ten thousand dollars. In other news...'

'That will be twenty-two dollars and fifteen cents, please.' the girl said, not knowing she was standing right in front of a wanted criminal.

Renee nodded and quickly gave the amount of money to her. As soon as the girl finished putting the products inside a paper bag, Renee murmured a barely audible 'Thank you', grabbed the full paper bag and exited the grocery store.

She sure hoped as hell that girl hadn't been watching the news lately. Good thing she got this new haircut.


	19. Strange Tenderness

**Chapter 19**

 **Strange Tenderness**

The motel room they had rented at Motel Sunset View was as luxurious as a bedroom of a king compared to the motel room they were staying in at this moment. The first thing Renee noticed when they entered the room were the rodent droppings on the windowsill and the tears in the wallpaper that was most likely applied to the walls in the seventies. This motel room made Renee's skin crawl, but it was better than nothing. If they hadn't spotted the motel in time, she and Dean would be forced to sleep in the car for the night. Luckily the lady behind the counter didn't have one bit of interest in the two partners in crime, not even bothering to look up from the magazine when Dean asked for the key; apparently reading about the latest gossips about celebrities nobody cared about was more interesting than paying attention to a customer. Renee was pretty sure that they were the only visitors in this hotel.

But now that she and Dean were sitting up in bed together, watching a movie on the television that was covered in a thin layer of dust and snacking on the cookies they had bought in the afternoon, the state of the motel room didn't bother Renee a bit. Hell, it was kind of cozy, actually.

It was like nothing had happened before all of this, like Renee and Dean had never been separated. While watching the movie, which was about a boxer who had wound up in a spiral of alcohol abuse and trying to break free from it all for the sake of the woman he loved, they both didn't say anything for a little while. They enjoyed the tranquility they had, who knows, it was very likely that they weren't going to have more moments like this in the future. Dean leaned over to the left and grabbed the package of orange juice he and Renee had to share, but he didn't really mind that. He took a big gulp before offering it to Renee. 'You want some? There's still some left.'

'Uh, no thanks, I'm fine.' she replied, shaking her head. Suddenly, Renee felt a yawn coming up. She closed her eyes and covered her opened yawn with her hand as she let out a barely audible yawn.

'Are you tired?' Dean asked.

'Hmm, just a little bit.'

Dean couldn't blame her for that. Today had been a very hectic day for the both of them; they were forced to leave their motel very early in the morning, they had been on the road for most of time, emotions flared like a wildfire, Renee was forced to walk many miles and they had spend the rest of the time looking for a motel. A day like this would make any person tired.

'If you want I can turn off the TV, then we can go to sleep a bit earlier. It's fine with me, really.'

Renee softly chuckled. 'That's really sweet of you Dean, but no thanks. I can take it.' It sounded weird, but she really did think that this was a very nice gesture of Dean. He actually acknowledged what she was feeling, something James and even her late grandmother didn't do. It was something so small, but it meant a lot to her.

No, she wasn't mad at Dean anymore for what he had done, that anger had cooled down by a long time now. She finally understood what it was like to kill for survival, but for Renee, she wished to kill for something else as well. Renee wanted to rid the world of all the abusive sons of bitches who were still out there, ruining the lives of many poor women. Renee thought she would do society a big favor by killing those men. James and that bastard back in the diner in Heyton Town were the first ones, now she only had to care of the rest. But at this moment, Renee had something else to worry about.

'Hey, Dean...'

'Yeah?'

Renee tried to sound as calm as possible, despite the fact that what she was about to say really freaked her out. 'Back when we were in that town where I bought the groceries... I heard on the radio that they found my fingerprints on that knife that I used to kill James. Fuck, they even found out about my name! Everyone knows who I am now! I feel so stupid for not getting rid of that damn knife, it's... just... God, I don't know what to think, I think I'm going to freak out...'

'Renee, calm down.' Dean replied. 'Listen to me. This is going to sound harsh, but it's true. Yeah, they found your fingerprints and revealed your identity, so now they have more traces to find you. Now that the cops know who you are, you will see, they are most likely going to put posters with your face on it in every single damn town or city, they will check security camera footage whenever they receive some tip of someone who claims to have seen you... long story short, the cops are going to look everywhere for you now. You gotta accept that. It's all part of living the life of a wanted criminal. But believe me when I say, Renee...'

On that moment, Dean looked her straight in the eyes. And for the first time in the past days... Renee noticed how warm Dean's sky blue eyes actually were.

'I'm going to make sure they won't catch you. From this moment on, we only have each other to rely on, we're in this together. There's no turning back, we are now pretty much the modern-day goddamn Bonnie and Clyde. But... you never deserved to be in this mess in the first place. Renee. I have done so much shit in the past for which they will let me rot behind bars for life, but you... you at least you had a good reason to kill. They're not going to get their hands on you, Renee, nobody will. No cop, nor some other scumbag. I will fucking kill them if they try. Believe me on that.'

Renee opened her mouth to speak, but she quickly shut it. She stared at Dean, desperately searching for words to say, but she couldn't find any. Damn... that promise felt like it was straight from the heart, like he actually meant it... Renee had absolutely no idea what to say. No man had ever promised her to keep her out of trouble. She felt like she had to face the consequences if they would ever be caught, but because of Dean's promise... she actually felt more safe. All of those words were coming out of the mouth from a man who had killed his wife and her lover, a pervert on a parking lot and an innocent man who had offered them help, but it didn't seem to bother Renee any longer. She believed Dean.

'Thanks, Dean...' she said with a soft voice. 'It... it means a lot to me. Nobody has ever said something like that to me...'

'Oh yeah, one more thing. I'm... I'm sorry for leaving you back there. I shouldn't have done that.'

Renee shook her head. 'Don't worry about it, let's not think about that anymore.'

Dean nodded. It was done, they were back together, they should be focusing on the future, not the past. He glanced at the box with cookies they had been eating, only to find out there was only one lonely cookie left. He retrieved it out of the box and broke it in two. 'Here.' Dean said, giving one half of the cookie to Renee. 'This is the last one, I would feel like a total dick if I would eat it.'

Renee smiled and accepted the half. After three bites, only a couple of cookie crumbles remained on the sheets. She had never felt this good in a long while.

Suddenly, she felt a strange kind of pain in her uterus, followed by a warm, wet sensation in her underwear. Renee slightly widened her eyes in surprise. Wait... could it be...? Without saying anything to Dean, she got off the bed and rushed inside the bathroom, where the hygiene wasn't too much better either. A pile of dirty sheets and towels were carelessly thrown in a corner, there were stains on the bathroom mirror and a small pool of urine was lying not too far away from the toilet, but Renee didn't notice all of that at the moment. She put the lid of the toilet down, sat on it and pulled down her panties. A large red stain had formed on the thin fabric. Renee rested the back of her head against her neck and let out a loud sigh of relief. 'Oh thank God...' she whispered.

She didn't get pregnant from the rape; it was something Renee had feared for during these days. She couldn't bear having a child from that monster James inside her while traveling, but thankfully this fear was now thrown out of the window.

At least Renee had one less thing to worry about.


	20. Down On The West Coast

**Chapter 20**

 **Down On The West Coast**

There was no better way to rinse away your last bit of sleepiness than to stand underneath a warm shower in the morning.

Dean tried to be as careful as possible when he slipped out of bed that morning, trying not to wake up Renee, who was still sleeping. He had been sleeping for a little while longer this morning, this time he had woken up around nine o'clock. The first thing Dean had seen when he woke up was Renee's sleeping face. She looked so peaceful, so relaxed... you'd almost forget about everything she had went through in the past. Dean decided to let her sleep. Just then, he noticed how much he actually stank. There was the strong smell of sweat lingering around him; what he needed was a shower.

And now Dean was standing underneath the spray of hot water, washing the sweat out of his hair with a cheap shampoo that smelled like oranges he had found in the bathroom's cupboard. He too noticed that the bathroom was everything but clean, he bet the cleaning lady was one lazy wench who didn't give a damn if the rooms in the motel looked dirty, as long as she would get her paycheck. But the state of the bathroom didn't really bother Dean; the small apartment where he grew up in as a kid was everything but clean as well. His mother couldn't be bothered to clean up the damn place, thinking it was more important to visit the neighbors for hours on straight to whine about her worthless husband, leaving little Dean all on his own, even when he was still a young child.

But now it wasn't time to dwell on the past; Dean had to focus on the future.

Yes, he was determined about not letting Renee falling into the hands of the cops. She didn't deserve to be thrown into a jail, it just didn't feel right, after all the shit she had been through. Dean had the strong feeling he had to protect Renee, but why? He couldn't give an exact answer to that. Maybe it was the fact that she, just like him, was damaged in some way. Life had fucked her over, a fate she didn't deserve in Dean's opinion. It was too late for him to redeem himself... but he had the feeling Renee was worthy of that.

Dean at his feet, watching as water mixed with foam disappeared into the drain. His eyes were still slightly stinging with tiredness, he rubbed them to get rid of the annoying sensation. But when Dean opened his eyes, his heart skipped a beat.

In the blink of an eye, blood had somehow mixed with the water and foam. It was trickling next to his feet and streaming towards the drain. It was the blood of his victims, Dean immediately realized. Tina, Frank, the police officer who was supposed to bring him to his trial, James, that pervert at the parking lot, the man he and Renee had tricked into 'helping' them; it weren't their souls that had come back to haunt him, it was their blood. 'Oh fuck, oh fuck...' Dean whispered, closing his eyes and shaking his head. No way, this was crazy, this was impossible... But much to his relief and disbelief, Dean saw that the water had gone back to normal. Not one drop of blood could be spotted. Goddamn it... he must've been imagining it all, his mind had decided to fuck around with him. Dean let out a soft sigh. Jesus Christ, how long would it last before he would go mad...?

All the shampoo had been rinsed out of his hair and the hot water had ran out; Dean decided to turn off the shower. He got out of the shower, grabbed an old towel from the cupboard and started drying off his body and hair. When he put on his clothes, he noticed how foul they actually smelled; hopefully he would be able to buy some new clothes for himself in some town, if he was lucky.

Just then, Dean heard a noise coming from outside the bathroom. He perked his ears and listened more closely. It was music, containing a slow, relaxing tune. Dean cocked his eyebrow and wondered where the music was coming from. He hadn't noticed a radio or anything when he and Renee had entered the motel room last night, maybe it was coming from the TV or he had overlooked the radio. Dean opened the door, allowing the music to spill into the bathroom.

What he saw next left him absolutely speechless.

Renee, the fallen angel, had miraculously found back her wings she had lost had turned on a radio that was put away in a corner and was now twirling through the motel room, dancing and softly humming along with the music. She had put on a light pink dress and was dancing around on her bare feet. With each graceful step, the skirt of her dress slightly fluffed up, making her appearance look even more angelic and innocent. Her short blonde hair and pale skin contributed to that look. It looked like all of her worries had fallen off of her shoulders, she was dancing as if she was made out of glass, it was so careful, so graceful...

And that's when Dean decided to fall in love with Renee.

The angel had revealed her true form. Holy hell, she had to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, he felt ashamed for not noticing it either. A true beauty, who was not only gorgeous from the outside but also from the inside, had been traveling with him all along and he didn't even pay attention to it... until now. Renee... only now he thought that this name would fit perfectly with an angel. Dean wouldn't dare to interrupt her dancing, he felt like that would be disrespectful to her. Instead, he didn't say anything and leaned against the door post and watched her twirling around. She didn't seem to notice him staring, it was like the music had put her in some sort of trance... but that trance made her look even more beautiful, if you asked Dean. Just by looking at her, he had forgotten about everything that had happened the past days. It was just him and this beautiful woman dancing in this motel room.

Suddenly, Renee looked up and saw him. She let out a soft gasp and abruptly stopped dancing. 'O-oh crap, Dean...' she mumbled in embarrassment. A blush appeared on her cheeks.

'It's alright.' Dean replied. 'It was nice to see you being this relaxed. You don't have to be embarrassed about, seriously.'

Renee glanced at her bare feet and softly chuckled. Damn, even her chuckling was beautiful. 'Sorry... I normally dance when I'm all alone, it has been a long time since I have danced. It looked like kind of rusty, doesn't it?'

Dean shook his head. 'No, not at all.' Just now, he realized that he had never heard the song she had been dancing on before. 'What's this song?' he asked.

'It's 'West Coast' from Lana Del Rey. She's my favorite artist, have you ever heard of her?'

Again, Dean shook his head. He never really had a real interest in music, if a nice tune would be heard on the radio of the car or anything, that would be fine, but Dean would never become a fan of a particular artist.

Renee smiled. 'Then I should let you listen more songs from her. She's amazing, I bet you will like her a lot.'

'West Coast' was still playing on the radio, there was still some time left to dance on it. Dean decided to make a bold move. 'You shouldn't be dancing alone.' he said. 'Would you mind if I danced with you?' He had never asked something like that to a girl in his entire life, not even to Tina. It surprised Dean, he never thought he would ask this to her.

Renee blinked her eyes in surprise. Holy cow, was he really making this offer? She almost couldn't believe her ears. The question was sudden, but if she had to be honest... it would be very pleasant to dance with somebody. She had never thought of dancing with Dean, not even for a single moment. But the offer was so sweet, she couldn't refuse. She smiled again and nodded. 'Sure. Come over here.'

She allowed him to dance with her... Dean felt like this was a big honor to him. 'I have to warn you, though. I suck when it comes to dancing.'

Renee softly laughed. 'Don't worry about it. We can change that.'

Dean walked towards Renee, he swore he had never felt his heart beating this fast. This was the second time he had fallen in love with a woman, but this felt so different than when he fell in love with that unfaithful cunt Tina. This time, a warm feeling had developed inside his chest and his heart was pounding like crazy, something he didn't feel when he met her. As soon as he stood in front of her, Renee put her hands on his shoulders. In response, Dean rested his hands on her hips.

'Okay...' Renee said. 'Here we go...'

It felt like they had done this before, it all felt so natural. Together, they slowly danced through the motel room. To Renee, it felt like they were not dancing on a rough carpet, but on clouds, it felt so light. She had never danced with somebody on a song of Lana Del Rey before, not even with James. He couldn't care less about her, all he cared about was the money. But now, everything that had happened these past days, including her past filled with pain and tears, had disappeared on the background. Dean had claimed earlier that he wasn't good at dancing at all, but Renee had to admit, he didn't lack any skills at all. They were in perfect sync. Renee couldn't help but softly sing along with the lyrics.

'You're feelin' hot at the show, I'm feelin' hot to the touch, you say you'll miss me the most, I say I'll miss you so much... Something keeps me real quiet, I'm alive I'm a-lush, your love, your love, your love...'

Looking into Dean's eyes, Renee couldn't help but look away. Those were the warmest blue eyes she had ever seen, they reminded her of the clear sky. And those eyes belonged to the man who had promised her last night that the cops wouldn't get their hands on her... Renee smiled from ear to ear, she felt so happy right now.

'I can see my baby swingin'... His Parliaments on fire and his hands are up... On the balcony and I'm singing: oh baby, oh baby, I'm in...'

The word 'love' violently refused to leave Renee's mouth... and she knew exactly why. She had noticed she was about to fall in love with him, but right at that moment, an invisible hand had pulled her back and made her remember the last time she had fallen for a man. That specific man had left deep scars into her heart. He had exploited and abused her, all for the sake of money. Love was what made her walk right into his trap, it didn't mean anything for him... it was exactly what he had wanted her to feel. A sickening feeling filled Renee's throat. Oh God... was she ever going to fall in love with a man again?

Dean immediately knew something was up and frowned in confusion. 'Is there something wrong?' he asked.

Renee sighed and looked away. 'I don't know how to tell you this, but... I can't. I can't love you, not yet. I wish I could, but I can't. I'm so sorry, Dean, I hope you understand...'

For a moment, Renee thought he was going to react with disappointment, but surprisingly, he appeared to be sympathetic. 'Don't worry.' he said. 'Take your time.'

And that's what Renee exactly needed, Dean thought. Time. They say that time heals all wounds, so perhaps it could heal this as well. He understood why she was unable to fall in love with him; that bastard James had beaten it all out of her. However, there would be a chance that she could feel it again, one day. There was no need to push her.

Dean swore that in the meanwhile, he was going to continue to love her. Renee was the only beautiful thing left in this goddamn world.


	21. Escaping Once More

**Chapter 21**

 **Escaping Once More**

Of course it wouldn't last long before the temperatures outside would rise and made staying in this motel room feeling like sitting in an oven. Dean and Renee were unlucky enough to get the motel room the sun was shining upon with full force (this was possibly the reason why there was the smell of sweat lingering around when they arrived last night), the only way to get at least some coolness was to open the window, but even that didn't help much. They had searched for a fan or anything else that could lower the temperature in the room, but apparently the motel manager was too much of a cheapskate to purchase one for his guests. Of course they had also tried to lower the blinds, but they had rusted so much over the past years that they wouldn't even budge. And so Dean and Renee were forced to eat their breakfast on their bed in the nearly unbearable heat. Goddamn it, Dean hoped autumn would come soon enough.

'You think there's a swimming pool outside?' Renee asked after swallowing down a piece of her bread.

Dean shrugged. 'I have no idea. We gotta check that out when we go outside, I guess.'

Even if this piece of shit motel had a swimming pool, Dean would hesitate to take a dive in there. Who knows, maybe the cleaners would just be as careless about cleaning that cesspool as they were about the rooms; it would just take one 'refreshing' dive and you would end up in the hospital, violently vomiting all over the place and making it more easier for the cops to find you. Dean was now not only determined to remain a free man... but to also protect Renee. He would never forgive himself if she would be harmed or arrested, now that he realized how much he actually cared about her.

'Wait, hold on, maybe I can see it from up here.' Renee wiped some breadcrumbs off of her lap and got up from the bed. She walked towards the window and looked around. Their motel room had a clear view on the parking lot, which only had five of six cars parked on it along with an RV, the cars most likely belonged to the people who worked in this shithole of a motel. Suddenly, Renee widened her eyes in shock as she felt her blood draining away from her face.

No, she didn't see a swimming pool, but she did see something else. Two police cars turned around the corner and entered the parking lot.

'Oh shit...' she whispered with a slightly hoarse voice.

'What? What is it?' Dean asked, looking up in confusion.

Renee turned around to face her partner in crime. When his eyes met hers, Dean saw the sheer shock they were expressing. Almost immediately, he felt the calmness he had shared with her this morning disappearing in the blink of an eye. This was bad, he knew. Really bad.

'The cops are here, Dean! I-I don't know why, m-maybe the lady behind the desk recognized, they could've found the car of that guy, o-oh God, fuck...'

'Renee, calm down! Go grab your stuff, we're getting out of here.' Dean replied, keeping his cool as much as possible. It was impossible that uninterested wench behind the desk could've spotted them, she was way too occupied with reading that stupid magazine. And there weren't any other people in this motel either. However, it could very well be that the family of that man he had shot yesterday has reported him missing and gave him the description of his car. And right now, it looked like they had found it...

Renee managed to pull herself together and nodded. 'Alright, alright... but how do we get out of here? Taking that car would be too risky, they will spot us right away!'

Just then, they heard two angry voices yelling at each other, all the way from the parking lot. Renee turned around and looked through the window once more. A couple in their mid-fifties had emerged from the RV she had seen earlier and had engaged in a loud, heated argument; hell, it was so loud that you could hear it inside your motel room.

'You motherfucker!' the woman shouted furiously at the top of her lungs. 'I knew you were still fucking your secretary behind my back! How could you?! You cheating bastard!'

'Oh yeah?! Well, you aren't such a saint either!' her unfaithful husband yelled back. 'Don't you think I know that you have been sleeping with that pool boy?! You aren't any better than me, so don't be such a fucking hypocrite, you miserable bitch!'

As she listened to the verbal rage unfolding below her, Renee suddenly felt the same strange, serene calmness she had felt back in Heyton Town, after she had slit that man's throat. Staring at the arguing couple, she didn't feel anything for them. They were worthless to her. God knows how many years they have wasted on being in this apparently failing marriage, someone who was that stupid didn't mean anything to her.

Then, something crossed her mind; it was the perfect idea of getting out of here before they would be caught.

'Get over here for a second.' she said to Dean, gesturing to him to come to her. Curious, Dean did so. 'Look.' Renee pointed at the couple. 'I think I know how to escape. Don't forget the pistol. We're gonna need it.'

* * *

What they had to do now was to not draw the police men's attention and sneak out as quietly as possible.

Always try to keep as calm as possible no matter what happens, Dean once said. Renee kept that advice in the back of her head. Her heart was pounding like crazy when they walked down the stairs, but she wouldn't allow to let the panic get the better of her. She clenched the handle of her suitcase so hard that her knuckles colored white, she was so concentrated on remaining calm she didn't even notice it. She expected the cops to appear right in front of their noses at any moment, slapping the cuffs on them and arresting them for all the misery they had caused, but luckily it didn't happen... just yet.

However, the fact that Dean was right here on her side helped Renee to stay calm. She wasn't afraid to admit that she felt safe around him, she swore she would never forget that wonderful moment they had in the morning. Renee wished she could fall in love with him, but... her past didn't allow it.

But right now there wasn't any time to mope about that; they had to escape before they would be caught.

The partners in crime reached the bottom of the stair and were now looking into the main hall of the motel. Renee's heart almost skipped a beat as she managed to suppress a gasp just in time. Oh God... the cops were standing right in the front of the desk, their backs facing them. That same lady who had received them so 'politely' last night was also there, but not even the cops could break her focus on the cheesy gossip printed on the magazine's pages.

'Ma'am? Could you put the magazine down for a moment?' one of the police men asked, starting to get impatient. But the woman just shook her head. 'I'm almost done reading.' she said peevishly.

None of them were paying any attention to them; this was their chance. Trying to make as little sound as possible, Dean and Renee snuck towards the entrance, not keeping their eyes from the cops and the lady behind the desk for a second. Renee held her breath as Dean opened the door, his moved his hand so slowly that you barely could hear the doorknob produce any noise. They heard the cop was finally running out of patience, now telling the woman with a more stern voice to put away the damn magazine. Good, as long as they would still focus on her, it would all turn out fine for Dean and Renee. As soon as the door was open wide enough for the both of them to get through, they snuck out and closed the door behind them with a soft click.

Outside, Renee let out a trembling sigh. 'Let's go.' she whispered, pointing at the parking lot. 'The RV should still be there... at least, I hope so.'

Dean nodded. He knew exactly what to do.

When they got closer to the parking lot, the partners in crime heard the arguing from the couple who owned the RV continuing. That was a good sign, though; it meant that they were still there. Turning around the corner, Dean and Renee saw them. Standing in front of the RV, the couple were still caught up in an argument that got more heated by the moment.

Leaving in their getaway car would only raise suspicion; it was the RV that they were going for.

Walking towards the couple, Renee glanced at Dean and nodded. He nodded back and pulled out the pistol he had tucked into the pocket of his jeans and hidden underneath his shirt.

The fighting couple had no idea who were approaching them. Only when they heard the soft click coming from the pistol, they stopped shouting and looked up; their eyes went wide with horror upon seeing the sight.

'Alright, you fuckers...' Dean growled, pointing the pistol at them. 'Get inside the RV, now. If you dare to make any fucking noise, I will put a bullet through both of your heads, got it?!'

'You'd better do what he's saying.' Renee hissed. 'He's dead fucking serious about this. Get in, hurry up!'

With their eyes still widened in shock and too afraid to say anything, the couple nodded, turned around and stepped into the RV, with Dean and Renee walking right behind them. Renee looked over her shoulder one more time before she shut the door behind her; nobody had seen them.

The interior of the RV looked rather cozy. There was a very small kitchen, a table and a bed that was big enough for two persons. Looking around, Renee was pleased with what she saw. This looked way better than that crappy motel room, they could stay here for as long as they'd like.

'Get down on the floor!' Dean shouted, still holding the couple at gunpoint. Whimpering in fear, the couple complied and lied with their bellies down on the floor. 'Which one of you has the keys?!'

'I-I do...' the man stuttered. He reached inside his pocket and tossed them towards Dean's feet. 'You can have them, but please... you can have my wife for all I care, but please, let me live!'

'What?!' his wife exclaimed in anger. 'You son of a bitch! Kill him, not me!'

Dean groaned in annoyance and shook his head. 'You know what?' he said. 'I think I will take you out both. We can't have any witnesses anyway.'

Then, without any hesitation, Dean shot the man right into the back of his head, killing him instantly. And before his oh so loving wife could utter a shriek, she was the next to go. With two shots, their miserable marriage had finally come to an end.

For a little moment, Dean expected Renee to scream hysterically, but nothing happened. He turned around and saw her staring at the dead couple... with a nearly cold look in her eyes. It surprised him to see her like this; yesterday she freaked the fuck out when he shot that man next to the road, but now the deaths of the couple didn't seem to bother her a bit. Damn... could Dean have unleashed something inside her?

But now, they had to get the hell out of here.

'Let's go.' Dean mumbled. He picked up the keys, sat down on the driver's seat and started the engine. He shifted the gear and he stomped on the gas pedal; they drove away from the parking lot and entered the main road.

Once again, the partners in crime had managed to escape... but their escape had cost the lives of two innocent people.


	22. What's Next?

**Chapter 22**

 **What's Next?**

Three days. They had been hiding here for only three days, but it felt like a damn eternity to Dean.

He remembered the fuel gauge of the RV being completely full when they escaped from that parking lot, but now the small red arrow was getting really close to the much dreaded 'E', they had been driving that much, hell, it was very well possible that they had been driving for hundreds of kilometers. Dean had barely paid any attention to the signs they had passed by during the trip, he only cared about getting as far away as possible. And judging from the fuel gauge, it looked like he had succeeded in that.

Of course Dean and Renee managed to get rid of the bodies of the original owners from the RV; they had wrapped them up in some sheets they found in a cupboard near the bed before dumping them in a ditch next to the road that was already littered with trash. Anyone who was careless enough wouldn't bother to pay any attention to the humanoid shapes loosely wrapped in the sheets, you would only notice the bloodstains on the back of their heads upon closer inspection. Even when they stopped for a short moment to dump the bodies, Dean noticed that Renee still had that same cold look in her eyes she had in the morning. Killing people meant nothing to her anymore, he immediately realized. For some reason, this made his skin crawl. This was not the broken, abused, miserable woman he had met in Rey City. No, that woman was gone; she was dead and buried, this was the new Renee. But at the same time, Dean was proud of her, in some kind of way. She had finally opened her eyes and seen what survival was about. Fuck the rest, it just you and you only who matters, don't let anyone stand in your way. That was Dean's philosophy on survival, he was glad that Renee finally saw it. Thank God they were alone on that road while getting rid of those bodies; but even if someone saw them, Dean wouldn't be afraid to take care of it.

Hundreds of kilometers later, they decided to hide out in the woods they were driving by at the moment, since they both agreed that staying at a motel. Besides, they could stay in this RV now, they had the basic necessities they needed. A bed, a small kitchen, plenty of food and even a small bathroom. Hell, the interior of the RV looked much more cleaner than all the motel rooms they had been staying in. As long as they would go deep enough into the woods, nobody would find them. They were miles away from civilization, so the woods were the perfect place to park their RV and lay low for a while.

Like on the other days, the sun was shining bright, causing the temperature to rise more in the afternoon. Thankfully, there were some bottles of water in the fridge. Sitting in the cool shadow of the RV against one of the wheels of the RV and occasionally taking a sip from his water, Dean watched Renee enjoying the weather outside. She was slowly walking around on her bare feet, not too far away from him, softly humming the tune of a song he didn't know. Probably just another song from Lana Del Rey, Dean guessed.

But despite the seemingly calm atmosphere, something was brewing.

Three days had passed since they had made their second escape and they were running out of food; turned out they had underestimated the food supply. But simply going to the supermarket to get what they needed was thrown out of the window by a long time now. Dean and Renee hadn't skipped one single news broadcast on the radio; the two were now officially nicknamed the 'Twenty-first Century Bonnie and Clyde' by all the authorities in the United States. The police had found their fingerprints inside the car of the missing man, who turned out to be Greg McGilliguty, a father of two children, thus immediately connecting the two with his disappearance (and death, later on). Adding the fact that they were also now labeled armed and highly dangerous, it was all enough to make them two of the most wanted criminals in the country. Dean and Renee were convinced that everyone knew how they looked like, thanks to the news. Doing the simplest things like searching for a gas station or visiting a grocery store was impossible now; people would report them to the police as soon as they would catch a glimpse of them. No, doing so would put them in great jeopardy. And thus, Dean and Renee were forced to stay in the woods inside the RV, with their food supply dangerously close to running out and tension slowly building up. They knew they had to get more food, but they were unable to do so, which frustrated them so damn much.

The food was not the only problem, though; the small amount of fuel still left in the RV was also the cause of the frustrations. If they decided to get out of the woods and hit the road again, chances were that they were going to run out of the remaining fuel and leave them stranded, thus making them sitting ducks for the cops.

They were stuck.

For the first time, Dean had no idea about what they were going to do next.

* * *

Good thing that couple had brought some entertainment with them, or else they would've been doomed to be bored to death.

Outside the RV, a gentle rain fell from the dark night sky. The only source of light inside the RV was the lamp attached on the roof. Sitting at the table, Dean and Renee were playing some poker with a stack of cards they had found in one of the cupboards to fight the boredom and relieve the tension that was brooding between them. However, it didn't do much.

Dean and Renee barely exchanged a word, they couldn't keep their mind on the game of poker. Staring at the cards in their hands, they both tried to figure out about what was going to be their next move. If they would stay here in the woods, they were bound to go hungry. But if they would dare to go back to civilization, swarms of cops would be waiting for them to catch them. Though they didn't say anything about it, Dean and Renee were frustrated beyond belief.

Renee's stomach had enough of being filled with such little food and began to protest, rumbling as loud as it could. Renee bit her lower lip in shame and let out a soft groan.

'Hey, do you think there are still some snacks in the cupboa-'

'No Renee! There is nothing fuck left in there!' Dean suddenly shouted, crumpling the cards in his clenched fists. The frustration had finally boiled over and the rage that came with it was now exploding like a volcano. 'Unless you want to get your ass snatched up by the cops and be thrown into the electric chair, I suggest you fucking go to town and get something! The keys are still in there! Go ahead, go to town and buy those goddamn snacks!'

Then Dean abruptly stopped shouting when he saw the hurt on Renee's face. Her eyes had gone wide with shock, he could swear he saw tears forming in the corners. Her lips were slightly trembling, as if she was going to cry at any moment. In a split second, Dean felt ashamed. Fuck, he shouldn't be shouting at her like that, she was suffering just as much as he was. They were in this together, they only had each other.

'I... I'm sorry.' Dean mumbled with a softer voice. 'It's just that...'

A loud sob escaped Renee's mouth as she shook her head. Tears trickled down her cheeks. 'I can't take this anymore, Dean!' she cried. 'I feel like a prisoner in here! We have no food, barely any fuel, we are trapped in here! Face it! We have nowhere else to go! This RV, this goddamn RV, is just as bad as any jail! I want to do something about this, believe me on that, but what can we do?! If we go out there, the cops will get us! And if we stay here, we will starve! We are fucked, completely fucked! We are wanted everywhere now, Dean! Everyone knows how we look like! One way or another, we will eventually be caught! There is no way to escape that! Either they will catch us alive or kill us before they can even put us in cuffs! I don't know what to fucking do anymore, Dean...'

Renee covered her face with her hands and sobbed uncontrollably; she too had reached her breaking point. Looking at her, Dean could feel his heart starting to crack. This right here was the textbook definition of desperation. Renee had never deserved to be in a situation like this in the first place. She had changed from an abused prostitute into a broken mess sitting inside an RV in the middle of nowhere. Angels don't fit in that scenario; she deserved better, much better. But she was right, though. They had nowhere to run to, they were possibly the most wanted criminals at this moment. Of course the police wanted to catch them, they wanted to prevent more blood spilling. They could go to the furthest, scummiest, depraved point in the United States, there would still be someone who recognize them and rat them out. They would never be safe in this country... but then where would they be safe?

It was completely silent in the RV for a long time, if Renee's sobbing didn't count.

Then, Dean had found the answer.

'Canada.' he said out of the blue.

Renee stopped sobbing and looked up. 'What?'

'Think about this, Renee. If we make it to Canada, we will be a lot safer and we can start all over again. We will never have to look over our shoulders again, we will be free to do whatever we want. All we have to do is change our identities and lay low, then nobody will ever suspect us.'

'But... how will we get there? We barely have any fuel...' Renee asked, wiping away her tears.

'I guess we're going to have a risk. I bet there's a cap or something like that lying around here, all long as it will cover my face while I'm gassing up the RV. Plus, we're gonna need money. Lots of it. That's why I've been thinking... If we're going to leave the country, we can not only go out with what we need, but also with a bang. We can rob a bank.'

Renee blinked her teary eyes in surprise. But before she wanted to open her mouth to speak, Dean leaned over and put his hands on her shoulders. Their eyes met each other. Sky blue met soft hazel. The touch and those warm eyes were enough to make the last bit of frustration fade away.

'You have to trust me on this one, Renee.' Dean spoke. 'We're going to make this. This will work out. We will get out of here. You're going to get a better life, I promise. Do you believe me?'

For a little moment, Renee didn't say anything. Then, a small smile appeared on her face. She slightly nodded.

'Yes.'


	23. Somebody's Gotta Pay

**Chapter 23**

 **Somebody's Gotta Pay**

 **Warning: this chapter contains a part with graphic sexual content. If you don't feel comfortable with that, skip it.**

No matter how much she tried, Renee was unable to fall asleep. She tried everything; counting to ten over and over again, not thinking about anything, keeping her eyes closed, but nothing worked. She tossed and turned, hoping she would eventually fall asleep. It must've been past midnight, she was sure about that, all she wanted right now was to get some shut-eye, but her thoughts refused to let her go to sleep.

The idea of her and Dean escaping to Canada to escape justice and starting a new life had never left Renee for a second. Of course she wanted to get out of here, she wanted to go somewhere safe and never be afraid again, but still... there was something that was bothering her a lot. On one side, she really wanted to go to Canada and leave all of this behind, but on the other side, she felt like she had to stay here. She couldn't exactly put a finger on that for a little while, but she soon understood why she felt like that. Renee had never felt this guilty in her entire life. But it was not only that, though...

She tossed and turned a little bit more, as if she was trying to shake off the guilt, but it didn't want to go away. Suddenly, Renee heard a soft groan and felt the mattress dent. She saw Dean slowly opening his tired eyes and sitting up. He looked at her and scratched the back of his head. Damn it, she must've woke him up...

'What's the matter?' Dean groaned. 'Can't sleep?'

Renee shook her head. 'No.'

'Why, something's bothering you?'

'Well... you could say that again...'

Renee sat up and looked at Dean. Just by one look at her face, Dean knew something was keeping her awake for a good reason. It was about the plan for tomorrow, he immediately realized. That could be possibly the only thing that was bothering her. Just then, Dean noticed how tired Renee actually looked; it was like she had literally endured every horror life had to offer her. Dark circles decorated the skin under her eyes and she looked so pale.

'What if we don't make it to Canada, Dean?' Renee asked. 'What if they will catch us before we even reach the border?'

Dean shook his head. 'They're not going to get us. I'm going to make su-'

'For God's sake Dean, just listen to yourself! You think we will always be a step ahead from the police, but please, for once, be realistic for once! If we rob a bank, they're going to send a freaking army of cops after us, they will chase us to the end of the world if they have to! We are the two of the most wanted criminals at this moment, they is no way in hell they will ever stop following us! One way or another, our luck will run out, just face it already!'

'Can't you have a little bit of faith for once, Renee?!' Dean replied, now wide awake. 'We are going to make it to Canada, we have to make it! There is nobody who will stop us, and if they fucking dare, I-'

'You will kill them. I know. I know you by now, Dean. But it's only going to make things worse! I mean, look at us! We have ruined so many lives! Those children of that man you killed now have to through their lives without a father, because someone shot him through the head for a getaway car! The family of that couple must be worried by now as well! Either one of us or the both of us must pay for all the misery that we have caused. If we go to Canada, the families will never have their justice! They will never be at peace! We get to live our new lives while they are stuck in a personal hell they will never escape from, it's so unfair! Don't you see, Dean? We have to pay for what we have done! I know we should flee the country, but I can't leave those families like this!'

Renee abruptly stopped ranting, letting out a loud sigh. There, she got it all off her chest; at least Dean knew what was keeping her awake.

For a short moment, it was completely quiet in the RV.

Then, Dean put his hand on Renee's shoulder, as if he was trying to comfort her. 'I really hoped you had more faith in me, Renee.' he spoke. 'You really should know that I would do anything to keep you out of jail, I want to protect you, even if it means ruining the lives of strangers. You never deserved this, you are too much of a good person for that.'

Renee sarcastically scoffed. 'You think I'm a good person, even though I have killed someone as well?'

'You're damn right about that.'

Despite everything, Renee managed to smile a little bit. 'Thanks... that's nice of you to say. So... you really meant what you said? That you want to protect me by all means?'

Dean nodded. 'I will protect you for as long as I remain a free man. Believe me on that.'

Oh God... so he really did care about her. He had gone all through this shit so she could stay out of reach from the cops, everything Dean had done was all for her. No man had ever done anything like Dean did for her... it made Renee feel blessed, somehow. It was beyond absurd, she knew that. Little did she know that the man she had met that day in Rey City during one of the many darkest days of her life would be her knight in shining armor in disguise, offering her a chance to leave her dreary life behind her and start anew. Sure, Dean had his rough edges, but deep down, he did truly care about her. She would never forget that Dean had ruined all the lives of all the family member from the victims. But it was for her... because she mattered to him. Dean had a good side, she had seen it herself. He wasn't entirely the coldblooded monster they described him as on the news. And anyone who still had some good inside him wasn't a real monster, right? Right? Renee truly hoped this theory was true.

She too had cared about Dean... and only now, she realized how much he actually meant to her. Killer or not, Dean was still a human being to her. He was... everything to her, now that Renee thought about it. He saved her, he took care of her, he was her traveling partner. He was the first man to ever treat her with respect. Renee would never forget that moment where they danced in that motel room on one of her favorite songs from Lana Del Rey, it was so sweet, so beautiful, so... romantic. Dean had been so gentle with her, he made her feel beloved. Beloved... yes, that was the right word to describe it. But Renee only didn't feel beloved, she felt safe around Dean. She trusted him. She wanted to be with him.

And that's when all the walls came crumbling down, with the dust covering the scars on her heart.

Renee nuzzled her cheek against Dean's shoulder, surprising him. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it.

'You know, Dean...' Renee spoke with a soft voice. 'I'm still not convinced that we won't ever be caught... but if the cops do happen to arrest us tomorrow after we rob that bank... then I really want to enjoy this moment for as long as it lasts.'

Just before Dean could reply to this, Renee kissed him right on the lips, turning the partners in crime into lovers in a split second. Yes, she was ready for it. She was ready to fall in love again, nothing could restrain her feelings for Dean any longer, not even her scarred past. Dean didn't hesitate for a moment to give into the kiss, closing his eyes and letting out a soft hum. Finally. A bit of time was all she needed; it had lasted for a while, but she at least finally made that big step. He ran his fingers through Renee's short blonde hair and pressed them against the back of her head, deepening the kiss.

God, she felt so happy... Renee got on top of Dean, their lips didn't separate for one second. Dean gently caressed her back over and over again, making her skin crawl in a good way. As they extended the kiss, they both felt the passion building up between them intensifying more and more. They wanted more than just a normal kiss. Dean slightly opened his mouth, allowing Renee to dart her tongue into his mouth. Softly grunting, Dean replied by brushing his tongue against hers, catching it in a passionate dance. Renee could swear she saw fireworks exploding in front of her eyes, if though she had them closed.

Suddenly, she felt something stiff poking through the sheet and touching the inside of her thigh , causing her to abruptly break the kiss to let out a soft gasp.

'What is it?' Dean asked, his voice rough with passion. Then he realized why she stopped. 'Oh... Look, we don't have to do it if you want to. But if you want it... then I'll let you be in control.' Renee had been forced to let dozens of men take control over her body so many times in the past, Dean refused to let her remember the darkest days of her life by being the one in control. This time, she was going to be the one to decide about what she wanted and what not. It had been months since Renee had consensual sex, she couldn't remember the last time that happened.

Renee blinked her eyes in surprise, not saying anything for a moment. But as much as this offer surprised her, the thought of being in charge during sex had something liberating and not to mention, arousing. She could feel her cheeks turning bright red.

'Alright then...' Renee whispered. 'Come here...'

She grabbed Dean's hand and carefully guided it to her chest, allowing him to touch her breast through the fabric of her nightgown. Dean closed his eyes and sighed, enjoying the touch of her soft skin underneath the fabric. Damn, if only he could feel it without any fabric covering it. Renee took hold of his hand once more and let it travel downwards her body, until his fingertips touched her panties. She buried his fingers underneath the fabric; upon feeling them touch her sensitive flesh, Renee let out a barely audible, shuddering moan.

Man, she was already wet... Dean started to brush his fingers over the soft flesh, causing Renee to slightly arch her back and let out another moan.

'Oh yes... Dean, that's it...'

Renee softly gasped when she felt Dean's index finger entering her, slowly thrusting in and out a few times before pulling out and trailing over the flesh and rubbing it again. Small sparks of pleasure traveled through her body, God, she couldn't get enough of this.

But it was not only Renee who wished this wouldn't end. Feeling the hot, warm, pink softness on his fingertips turned Dean on even more, so much that his erection almost became painful. He wanted to give her more pleasure, it's what she deserved; being able to give her pleasure pleased him so much.

After a little while, Renee pulled Dean's hand away, thinking she was prepared enough. She took off her nightgown and panties, tossing them next to the bed. Slightly biting her lower lip, she pulled down the sheets, revealing Dean's fully erected manhood, still covered by the fabric of his boxers. Renee curled her fingers around the waistband and removed the boxers, joining it with her nightgown and panties. Dean let out a soft hiss when his manhood came in contact with the cool air. Renee positioned herself on top of him, making sure the tip of Dean's erection would be lined up against her entrance.

She was ready.

Renee closed her eyes and held her breath as she lowered herself on Dean's manhood, letting out a soft whimper when the head penetrated her. The mild pain that followed was almost enough to make her remember the horrors she was forced to go through in her prostitution days, but she refused to let those awful memories stop her from making love to Dean. The past was dead to her, what mattered now was the present. She lowered herself further until Dean's manhood was completely in, causing him to close his eyes and moan loudly.

'Oh fuck, Renee...' Dean whispered as he felt the first small waves of pleasure.

Renee smiled and softly chuckled before she started to move her hips, bouncing up and down. A shiver ran over her spine because of the pleasure, damn, she had practically how good sex felt. Those motherfuckers who had used her had taken it away from her, but tonight, she had found the pleasure back. She slightly opened her mouth, allowing sweet moans and cries to escape her throat. Dean rested his hands on Renee's thighs, often gently squeezing them, allowing the pleasure to spread through his body as well, refusing to look away from Renee for one second. She looked more beautiful than ever now, he never wanted to forget this sight for as long as he would live.

He let Renee ride him for a little while longer until he felt the need to do something in return for her. Dean reached out and managed to rub that tiny bundle of nerves, making Renee let out a shaky cry. Her movements combined with Dean's wonderful touch were enough to build up something inside her, she was getting closer and closer, oh God, she could feel it coming...

And just like that, Renee fell over the edge, causing her body to slightly spasm and her to collapse on top of Dean. Without any hesitation, Dean put his hand on the back of her head and caught her lips in a kiss while he started thrusting inside her. It only took a few thrusts before he felt coming close to his climax as well. A little more, just a little bit more...

Dean let out a shaking moan in the kiss as he filled Renee up, making her moan as well. For a moment, they both didn't move an inch, enjoying the peaceful aftermath. Then Renee gently broke the kiss, letting out a shuddering, satisfied sigh. She rolled off him, causing his softened manhood to slip out of her. They both felt like some sort of mist clouded their minds, making them feel more relaxed than ever. Renee closed her eyes and rested her head against Dean's chest while he slowly caressed her back. He kissed her on the forehead, wanting to let her know how beloved she was.

That night, Dean and Renee had gone from partners in crime to lovers in crime.


	24. No Turning Back

**Chapter 24**

 **No Turning Back**

Unlike on the other days, the sun decided not to show up for once, causing the grey sky to attribute to the already slightly depressing landscape of tall pine trees and empty roads.

It was completely quiet in the RV, if the soft humming of the engine didn't count as noise. Dean had clenched his fists around the steering wheel and focused on the road in front of him. Today was the day; it was the first thing he thought after he woke up that morning, with Renee still resting her head on his chest.

Today they were going to commit their last crime in the United States.

After that, the couple would be able to spend the rest of their lives in Canada, where they could live in peace and never look over their shoulders again. For a little moment, Dean could imagine it all; with the money they could afford a proper home and buy enough food for the both of them, the rent shouldn't be a problem either. However, the only thing they had to do before they could do all of that was to get a new identity. It was highly likely that some Canadians would know who Dean Ambrose and Renee Young were, so Dean didn't want to risk that. But he knew it was still too early to think about all of that.

Renee was right about what she said last night. The chance that the police would chase them after succeeding in robbing the bank was big, there was no way to avoid that. They wouldn't have any time to switch cars, so they would have to escape with the RV. As long as he wouldn't lift his foot from the gas pedal and have a little bit of luck on his side, there might be a chance they would escape from the cops. After that, they would travel all the way to the north and head towards Canada. Before they got out of the woods, Dean had found a map and after a little while of studying it, he had found their current location. The town that came closest to the woods was named Hazelville, hopefully there would be a bank located over there. And hopefully there would be a gas station around here as well.

Dean broke his focus on the road and glanced at Renee, who was sitting on the passenger's seat. She was staring into the distance, looking surprisingly calm for someone who was going to rob a bank for the first time in her life. In her hands, she was holding what would be considered as her signature weapon; a butcher knife she had found in the RV's small kitchen. A loaded pistol and a sharp butcher knife would be more than enough to strike fear in the heart of every person who was unlucky to be at the bank, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

'So what's the plan?' Renee suddenly asked, turning her head to look at Dean, as if she knew that he was staring at her. 'How are we going to do it?'

Dean stared back at the road again. 'It's gonna be pretty simple, I guess.' he replied. 'We get in there, grab the money and get the hell out.'

'And then what? We're going to drive like crazy until we lose the cops?'

Dean nodded. 'Exactly.'

Renee wiped a strand of hair out of her face. 'Sounds fair enough.'

'Are you nervous? Are you still up for it?'

'Of course I am. Just... let's get this over with, alright? The sooner we get to Canada, the better.'

Dean softly chuckled. 'That's the spirit. Good to hear that from you. You really are one hell of a woman, Renee.'

A smile spread across Renee's face, but it quickly faded away. Of course she wanted to continue to be with Dean in Canada, they could finally settle down and work on their relationship. For a little moment, she was actually positive about their future. It was going to be just her and Dean, nobody was ever going to separate them. And if things continued to go well... then maybe they could get married and even have a child or two. The thought already made a warm glow develop in her stomach. If they would have a child together, she really hoped it would be a girl. Renee started to wonder how their possible future daughter would look like before she abruptly stopped daydreaming.

She couldn't think about this yet. First they had to escape with the money, stay out of reach from the police and then they still had to cross the border somehow. They didn't have passports, there would be police guarding the border now that two criminals were on the loose, so that was going to be pretty hard. But Dean was right, she also should have a bit more faith... maybe they were going to make it, maybe they were going to start a new life in Canada.

Renee sighed and stared at the butcher knife she was still holding. In the blade she saw the reflection of a young woman with short blonde hair and hazel eyes, who had a past full of pain and heartbreak in her wake and was planning to rob a bank with her current lover. Staring at her own reflection, Renee slowly nodded.

One way or another, they were going to get that money. A bright future was awaiting Dean and Renee and nobody was going to take that away from them.

* * *

Just a few kilometers away from Hazelville, Dean had spotted a gas station at the side of the road and stopped there to put as much gas in the RV as possible. The price of the gas was high, but that didn't matter to him; they were going to have enough money to do everything anyway. Wearing a cap he had found in the RV, he stepped inside the gas station to pay. Making sure the cap would cover most of his face, he was confident that the middle-aged lady who was wearing way too much make-up behind the desk wouldn't recognize him that easily. No, he didn't feel one bit of nervousness. Immediately after he had paid, Dean turned around and exited the gas station without saying a single word to the lady, hearing her mumble indignantly before he left.

'Did she see your face?' Renee asked as soon as he got back inside the RV.

Dean took off his cap, carelessly tossed it away and shook his head. 'Nah, I don't think she even bothered to look at me. Let's go.'

They drove away from the gas station and went back on the road. A couple of kilometers, the lovers in crime saw a wooden sign appearing the distance. A smiling cartoon deer that kindly waved at potential visitors was painted on the wood. Upon spotting the image of the deer, Dean unwillingly remembered the day he escaped his trial; that animal must still be lying on the highway, scattered in pieces. 'Welcome in Hazelville!' it said in graceful letters. 'Population: 150.' And the amount of future bank robberies: one.

'Alright, Hazelville...' Dean mumbled. 'Let's see if you got a nice little bank for us to rob...'

Driving in the streets of the small town, the lovers in crime found out that Hazelville was just one of the many average, all-American towns scattered across this country they were going to leave soon. Hazelville was not the kind of town poor bastards who were desperately looking for any kind of job would live, nor high class snobs who were looking for the peace you would only find in a place like this. No, the people who were walking on the streets looked like they were middle-class kind of people. Renee remembered the time where she was left to wander around Heyton Town, she remembered she felt like a complete intruder there. Not only that, but she also felt like the residents knew what she had done in her past, despite the fact that none of those people had ever met her. But now, she didn't feel anything. She didn't feel a thing for this godforsaken town, they would rob a bank and leave this place behind them forever. Renee was pretty sure Dean was feeling the same thing.

Looking around, they saw a school where recess had already started. Children were scattered all over the playground, running after each other, playing games or talking to each other; thank God they are not at the bank right now, Renee thought. But it was not only a school that was located here, there was a bakery, a bookstore, a pet store, a flower shop and even a small restaurant, Renee actually had to admit that Hazelville actually looked kind of cozy.

And then, when the lovers in crime turned around a left corner, they finally found what they had been searching for. A bank.

The first thing Dean and Renee noticed was that this building looked bigger than all the other buildings in this town... which meant there must be a lot of money in there. Staring at the concrete walls, Renee felt the nervousness kicking in, but could suppress it just in time. This was not the time to be nervous, she had to remain calm. She had to cast all her empathy and emotions aside for this, but despite that, she hoped nobody had to be hurt. Then she felt two eyes staring at her. Renee turned her head and saw Dean looking at her.

'Are you ready?' he asked.

For a brief moment, Renee didn't say anything. She nodded. 'Yeah.' she said. 'Let's do this.'

Upon hearing the words he wanted to hear, Dean turned off the engine and grabbed a duffel bag that once contained the laundry of the couple they had killed; in a few moments, it was going to be stuffed with dollar bills. He cocked his pistol and glanced at Renee. 'Come on, let's go.'

From the moment they got out of the RV, the lovers in crime realized that there was no turning back; once they would enter, all hell was going to break loose.

Once they stepped inside the bank, they knew that it was now or never.

Dean aimed his pistol in the air and fired a bullet, the bang would remain in the memories of the people who were unfortunate to be here at the moment for as long they would live. A collective exclamation of shock filled the bank.

'This is a robbery!' Dean shouted at the top of his lungs. 'Get down on the ground, now!'

All the people, frightened out of their minds, complied without any hesitation. They lied down on the ground, some of them started to whimper uncontrollably while others clenched their eyes shut; one of them was even praying to God that the man and woman would go away as soon as possible.

Without wasting any time, Dean and Renee charged towards the desk, where a young woman in her late twenties was frozen in shock, too terrified to move an inch. They aimed their weapons at her, causing the poor woman to let out a shriek.

'Shut the fuck up!' Dean yelled. He put the duffel bag on the desk and pointed at it. 'Give us all the money you have, hurry the hell up! Or else we'll kill you, you hear me?!'

'And don't even think of pushing that button!' Renee shouted.

The woman nodded and turned around, opening the large safe behind her while her hands trembled like crazy. After she opened it, she started filling the duffel bag with hundreds of dollar bills while Dean and Renee still aimed their weapons at her, until it was completely filled up. Dean zipped it shut and immediately took off, along with Renee. Once they were outside, they felt how much adrenaline there was pulsing through their bodies. The lovers in crime rushed inside the RV. As soon as they had taken place on their seats, Dean started the engine and they immediately drove away.

Little did they know that the woman behind the desk had gathered the courage to press that one button underneath that desk that would put both Dean's and Renee's freedom in great jeopardy...


	25. I Love You The First Time

**Chapter 25**

 **I Love You The First Time, I Love You The Last Time**

Renee remembered the last time they took off after a robbery that her heart was pounding like a jackhammer, but right now she felt so calm, it was hard to believe it. She leaned to her left, grabbed the duffel bag and zipped it open, only to be greeted with numerous stacks of dollar bills, ranging from dollar bills from a hundred dollars to five hundred dollars. As she counted the money, a smile spread across her face.

'Holy hell, Dean...' she whispered in awe. 'This must be around seventy thousand dollars... We are rich! We did it! This is more than enough to start a new life in Canada with!'

Dean had only slightly lifted his foot from the gas pedal until Hazelville, whose residents were still shaken up by the news of a robbery taken place in their oh so peaceful town, had completely vanished out of the reflection of the rear view mirror. Upon hearing the good news, Dean grinned from ear to ear and chuckled. 'That's fucking fantastic! I told you we were going to be fine, Renee!'

Staring at the dollar bills, Renee finally dared to look at the future with a brighter view. With this money they could start all over again, they could buy a house, enough food, pay the rent, buy a car, maybe even have a child together... the thoughts gave Renee more and more hope by the second. For a little moment, she felt like their future in Canada was just within their reach, that nobody could stop them now. Everyone knew them as the 'Twenty-first Century Bonnie And Clyde', but for some reason, Renee didn't feel any shame of sharing that nickname with Dean anymore. She and Dean were the couple everyone knew, one way or another. Documentaries would be made of them in the future for sure, maybe even a movie or two, she wondered which actress they would hire to play the role of the notorious Renee Young, partner of the wanted killer Dean Ambrose; as long as the actress would match her looks as much as possible, Renee would be fine with it, she guessed. Hopefully they would get a proper actor to play as Dean as well. But that didn't matter. They weren't the kind of criminals who caused all this misery for fame, they did it for survival and survival only. By the time the movies and documentaries would be released, they would be in Canada living their new lives.

The sound that was heard behind the RV made the smile disappear from Renee's face immediately.

Police sirens. Multiple police sirens.

Glancing in the side mirror, Renee saw exactly what she had feared for; three, maybe four, no, five police cars had appeared behind them, they were just a few meters away from closing in on them. Renee swore she felt her heart had stopped beating.

'Oh my God...' she whispered in horror. 'Dean... they found us! They found us!'

'Yeah, I pretty much fucking heard that by now!' Dean snapped back. As soon as he had heard the sound he had hoped to never hear during their journey, he knew shit was getting real. Fuck, that bitch back at the bank must've pressed the button, he knew he should've shot her when they had the chance! He couldn't believe he had been that stupid underneath the desk. The sound of the police sirens filled up every empty spot in Dean's head, he almost couldn't think straight because of that. Then, one single thought eclipsed over all other thoughts.

It was the thought of getting the hell out of here.

'Renee, you're wearing your seatbelt, right?'

'Yeah.'

'Good. Then let's get the fuck out!'

And as soon as Dean finished speaking the last word, he stomped on the gas pedal with all the strength he had. With a jolt, the RV suddenly massively increased in speed, causing the engine to let out a load roar before speeding off.

Renee suppressed a shriek of surprise just in time, clenching one of her fists into the leathery material of the passenger's seat while clenching the other fist into the duffel bag. This was it, she realized. The realization nearly cut off her breath. The cops were right on their tail, she was convinced they weren't planning on letting them get away, they were going to catch them dead or alive. The couple they were chasing now were the most wanted criminals in the country at the moment, there was no way in hell they were ever going to allow them to escape. Oh God, this was happening, this was really happening... for a brief moment, Renee thought she was going to hyperventilate, but thankfully she was able to remain in control of her breathing. Her sight was glued to the reflection of the side mirror, keeping a watchful eye on the police cars that got closer and closer to the RV; it was not only them who had decided to sped up.

Meanwhile, Dean had never been so focused on the road in front of him in his entire life. He was clenching his fists around the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned completely white, his foot that was fully pressing onto the gas pedal started cramping up, but he didn't even feel it. There was no way in hell, not in a million motherfucking years, that those bastards were ever going to catch them, he was more than fucking determined on that. Nobody was ever going to catch him and Renee, he promised her she would have a better life and he was going to live up to that promise. Dean refused to let those motherfuckers in uniforms take everything away from them, he would kill them if they tried. No, they weren't going to get them that easily.

The trees that were standing next to the road like huge, green giants had turned into a green and brown blur due to the speed, almost losing their shapes. The constant sound of the sirens nearly drove Renee crazy, it would the only sound she could hear; she almost wanted to press her hands on her ears to make it all stop, but she had to stay strong. Not only for herself, but also for Dean. They were both into this mess, so they both had to get out of this.

'Hang in there, Renee!' Dean shouted, his voice just audible enough to hear over the roaring engine. 'We're gonna get rid of them!'

Renee didn't say anything, only focusing on the sight behind her. Oh God, please Dean, please do get rid of them, please make them go away, make all of this go away, she thought. She wanted to believe Dean, she wanted to believe every word he said, but a promise was not going to be enough to get them out. They were going to need luck. Lots of it.

The adrenaline-fueled car chase had only been going on for a few minutes, but if felt like it was going on for an eternity. Due to the heart-stopping speed, it became harder and harder to properly control the RV itself; every now and then, Dean had to give little jerks with the steering wheel to keep the vehicle on the road, refusing to slow down for a single moment. Every time when the RV was getting dangerously close to the side of the road, Renee expected to crash against the trees until Dean would steer the vehicle to the left, making her heart pound uncontrollably. When Dean steered the vehicle to the left again to avoid crashing against the tree line, Renee saw a car heading towards them on the opposite side of the road, completely unaware of the chase that was taking place right now... and Dean was heading right towards it.

'Dean, look out!' Renee shrieked.

Just before the RV was about to crash against the car, Dean managed to steer to the right just in time before their escape would come to an abrupt, gruesome end. Screeching tires mixed with the police sirens. Renee expected a loud crash to follow, but she didn't hear anything, much to her surprise. She looked back in the side mirror, she saw that the car had stopped just in time before it could crash into the police cars, blocking the road in the process. Renee let out a loud sigh of relief.

'Oh thank God... I think we got rid of them, Dean.' she sighed.

'Wait, are you for real?!' Dean quickly glanced at the rearview mirror and widened his eyes in surprise. Renee could swear that he was about to curl to corners of his mouth into a victorious grin. 'Holy fuck... you're right!'

With this, they had gotten more time to escape. Luck was on their side today, Dean could feel it in his bones. This was their chance to get out, they were going to continue their journey to Canada! Still not planning to decrease the speed, Dean made the distance between them and the cops grew bigger and bigger.

The tree line next to the road ended and the RV drove up a hill. A guardrail prevented cars that were passing by from driving down the hill and crashing into the woods down below. It would only take one turn to the left to leave the police cars behind them, Dean and Renee could feel their freedom and their new lives in Canada on the tip of their tongues...

But all of their hopes and dreams for the future were all mercilessly thrown out of the window and killed instantly when a loud bang made the RV violently tremble.

Renee loudly shrieked and grabbed onto the passenger's door as Dean furiously tried to regain control over the slipping vehicle, turning the steering wheel and stomping on the brake, causing the RV to come to a screeching halt. The stench of burned rubber filled their noses, making it impossible to smell anything else. Looking through the window, Renee saw that they were just a few centimeters away from hitting the guardrail, much to her horror.

'What the fuck?!' Dean loudly asked, his eyes wide with surprise. He opened the door and got out, followed by Renee. Walking to the back of the RV, they saw that their getaway vehicle had suffered a blowout. The rubber was shredded off of the frame, leaving it almost completely bald.

A blowout... A fucking blowout...

Dean's head felt like spinning.

No.

No, this couldn't be fucking happening.

This had to be a goddamn joke.

This wasn't happening.

'Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!' Dean furiously shouted at the top of his lungs, banging his fists against the RV over and over, blinded by rage. The longer Renee stared at the tire, the more her throat felt like it was being stuffed by sand. No, this couldn't be happening... no, not now, goddamn it, why now?! They had gotten away, they were on their way to their future, why did this happen?! Her legs had given up on her. Renee fell down on her knees while still staring at the blowout in pure disbelief. She slowly shook her head as a loud sob escaped her throat. Tears of despair rolled down her cheeks.

'No!' she cried, covering her face with her hands before breaking down in tears.

This was it.

It was all over.

They were trapped.

It was only a matter of time before the cops would catch up with them.

Dean stared at the sky, seething with frustration and despair. There was no spare tire they could use, they were sitting ducks for the police. The realization that their luck had ran out, like Renee had predicted last night, made Dean feel nothing more but sheer disbelief. This was not part of the plan, it never had been. This should've ended differently, they should've had escaped, but it looked like fate had decided to ditch them. He leaned his forehead against the RV and stared at the ground. It was all over. At first he refused to believe that, but it was the harsh truth. He heard the police sirens getting closer, they must've gotten past the car that was blocking their way. Dean looked up and stared at Renee, who was still on her knees and hysterically sobbing. Sweet Renee, beautiful Renee... He had failed to give her the future she deserved; Dean would never forgive himself for that. He had lied to her. He had made her a promise he couldn't keep. She didn't deserve to spend the rest of her life behind bars, it wasn't her fate. And she sure as hell didn't deserve to be put in that one goddamn chair...

Suddenly, a strange kind of calmness took over Dean, blocking out every emotion he had.

He could still make his promise come true.

Without saying a single word, Dean went back inside the RV, grabbed the duffel bag with the stolen money in it, went back outside and dropped it right in front of Renee.

The desperate woman let out a soft gasp, looked at the duffel bag, then at Dean, then back at the duffel bag with a confused look in her teary eyes.

'Dean... wha-?'

'Grab that bag and get up.' Dean calmly replied. 'You take that bag and you make a fucking run for it.'

Renee opened her mouth to say something, but Dean started talking again before she got the chance to speak.

'You were right. Someone has to pay for this entire goddamn mess. It should be me, not you. You are still worthy of living a happy life, Renee.'

It felt like her body had frozen. Renee stared at Dean in pure shock, she couldn't believe what he had just said, she refused to believe it.

'N-no, Dean... No...' she stammered.

The police sirens were getting louder; time was running out. Dean grabbed Renee's arm and roughly pulled her back up on her feet, then grabbed the duffel bag and shoved it into her hands.

'Get out of here!' he shouted. 'Run and don't look back! For fuck's sake Renee, listen to me! This is your chance to start a new life, you can still go to Canada! It's too late for me, but not for you!'

Renee shook her head as new tears flowed down her cheeks. 'No Dean!' she sobbed. 'We should go together, I'm not leaving without you! I won't let you have them, this is not fair! I can't do this without you, Dean!'

'Yes, you can! Trust me Renee, you can do it! You are a strong woman, I have seen it! As long as you are careful enough, you are going to be fine!'

'Dean... I can't... I love you...'

The police were just a kilometer away from reaching them. Dean grabbed Renee by the arm again and dragged her to the guardrail. Thankfully the hill wasn't too steep... she wouldn't be hurt too much. Dean put his hands on Renee's shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. Sky blue met soft hazel... for one last time.

'We're running out of time. Renee...' Dean softly spoke. 'I wish you nothing more but the best. You deserve everything that is good. I hope you will have a good life after this mess is over. I know you can do it, I believe that. I love you, Renee... and I always will.'

And just before Renee could answer back, Dean pushed her with all the strength he had, causing her to trip over the guardrail and tumble down the hill. She clenched her eyes shut and held the duffel back close against her as small sticks and pine needles pricked into her arms and legs and earth stained her skin and clothes. The world felt like it was spinning around her, even with her eyes closed. Renee felt like she was falling down forever, but it all came to an end when she finally reached the bottom.

Dean had watched her until he had seen her landing, making sure she was fine. She looked like she was kind of sore, but she was okay, that's all what mattered to him.

Renee was safe... now it was only him and them.

Dean turned around, rushed back inside the RV and grabbed his pistol; his tool for his last stand. As soon as he got out of the RV, he saw that the guests of honor had finally arrived, stopping in front of him with screeching tires. Police officers immediately stepped out of their cars and aimed their own pistols at him.

'Put your hands in the air, Ambrose!' one of the officers shouted. 'Step out of the RV, Young! You've got nowhere to go!'

'Hey, you are never going to find her, you fuckers!' Dean shouted back. 'I've killed her! You are never going to find her body!'

'He's got a weapon!' another police officer exclaimed. 'Ambrose! Put the weapon down and lay down on the ground! Now!'

As soon as he would be put in front of the judge, he would be sentenced to death. Dean was sure as hell about that. Six murders and two robberies, yup, those were the ingredients to be send to the electric chair. Hell, if they were going to give him the death sentence... then it would be better to speed things up a bit.

He had nothing left to live for anyway.

Without any hesitation, Dean aimed the pistol at the police officers and fired the two last remaining bullets; he would never find out whether the bullets struck an officer or not.

'Fire!'

A rain of bullets were shot at Dean, each of them piercing his body. It felt like he was being ripped apart from the inside, he felt nothing more but pain... but he didn't scream, though. Suddenly, one of the many bullets struck him right in the heart, which caused his head to feel light. Dean fell down on his knees, collapsed on his side, then rolled onto his back. Staring at the grey sky, he felt warm, thick blood soaking his clothes, coloring them red. The lightness in his head took the pain away... it almost felt peaceful, to be honest. Dark spots started clouding his sight. He was getting close, he knew. But it was okay, though.

Dean had paid the price.

Renee was going to be safe, he was sure about that.

As the spots grew thicker, Dean's head was feeling lighter, but he didn't feel any fear. In between the spots, he could swear he saw Renee's face, looking down at him with a sweet smile and loving eyes. It was the face he loved so much...

With Renee's face in his mind, Dean closed his eyes and let out his final breath.

Then he was gone.

It was over.

* * *

Oh God... It couldn't be... This had to be a nightmare... Was he really...?

Hiding in the bushes, Renee had listened to the gun fire that had echoed through the entire area. She was completely frozen, she couldn't move for an inch. Those guns had gone off so many times... they had killed him, she was sure of it.

Dean was dead... She couldn't believe it, this was too surreal, this had to be a nightmare. Renee expected to wake up in the RV at any moment, with her head still resting on her lover's chest and receiving a loving kiss from him upon awakening... but it didn't happen. This was the horrible reality.

The man she loved was dead.

Dean, the man who had saved her, traveled with her and learned her how to fall in love again, was no more.

Tears wouldn't stop rolling over Renee's cheeks. She covered her mouth with her hand in an attempt to muffle her sobs, but they were just too loud. She refused to believe it, this couldn't be real... but it was real. The world had stopped existing around her, time had stood still. Why? Why did this have to happen? They were almost there, they had the money to start their new lives, their future was right in front of them...

The future... it was her future Dean had sacrificed himself for. If Renee would stop now, his death would've been in vain. She stopped sobbing and wiped away her tears, but despite that, more tears soon rolled over her cheeks. Closing her eyes, she remembered the last words Dean had told her before his death.

Run and don't look back. You're going to be safe. You can do it.

Dean believed in her, he always had. Yes. She wouldn't let his death be in vain, she would never forgive herself if that would happen. Renee got up on her feet, held the duffel bag close against her and did what Dean had told her to do; she made a run for it, heading into the woods.

She was going to be fine. As long as she was going to stay strong, she would be safe.

Renee was going to make sure Dean would be proud to have her as his lover and partner in crime, even in death.


	26. Give Me All Of That Ultraviolence

**Chapter 26**

 **Give Me All Of That Ultraviolence**

Three knocks on the door of the trailer made Renee snap out of her thoughts. Who could that be? For a split moment she thought the Canadian police had finally found out about her true name and came to arrest her, but she quickly shrugged that off. If there was one thing she had learned during the past seven years, it was to not jump to any conclusions and stay calm. Freaking out wouldn't get you anywhere.

Renee pulled her hands out of the lukewarm dishwater and quickly dried off her hands with a towel; the dishes were going to have to wait. She walked through the trailer and headed towards the door. Opening it, she was greeted by a little boy and a girl, who were around the age of eight and six, respectively. They both had red hair and blue eyes; they were siblings. The boy was holding a football that had clearly been played with many times. Renee smiled at the two children, thankfully she hadn't been discovered just yet.

'Hey there, Peter and Lizzie!' she said with a cheerful voice. 'What can I do for you two?'

'Is Sophia there?' Peter asked. When he was speaking, you could clearly see that he was missing a front tooth; possibly the result of simply getting rid of his milk teeth or playing too rough in the woods near the trailer park. 'Can you ask her if she can come play with us?'

Renee nodded. 'Sure, I'll ask her. Just hold on for a minute, okay?'

She turned around and headed towards the back of the van. Sophia, her seven-year old daughter, was sitting on the small couch and watching a cartoon on TV. The little girl hummed along with the song the characters were singing, she had watched this show so many times that she knew the song by heart.

'Sophia?' her mother asked. Sophia blinked her eyes and looked up. 'Hmm? Yes, mommy?'

Renee's heart felt like it was glowing, like it did every time whenever she was called 'mommy'. It gave her the feeling that this little girl had accepted her in her life as the mother role she needed, it was something so small, yet it made Renee so happy.

'Peter and Lizzie are outside, they asked if you want to go play with them.'

Upon hearing the name of her two friends, a little twinkle appeared in Sophia's big blue eyes. The smile that appeared on her face reminded Renee so much of the way Dean used to smile... and that made her feel even more blessed to be the mother of this little angel of a girl. She had dirty blonde hair that reached her shoulders, a mixture of the hair colors of her mother and her late father. By one look at her sky blue eyes, you knew she had to be the daughter of Dean Ambrose. Sophia got off the couch and ran towards her bedroom, which was small, but big enough for a little girl to sleep in. 'Hold on, I'm putting on my shoes! I'll be there in a second!' Renee heard her exclaiming inside. A moment later she came out, wearing a pair of army green sneakers, which matched with her short jeans and black tank top. It was spring, but Sophia was dressed like it was already summer. She had always been a kind of a tomboy, preferring climbing in the trees in the woods over playing with dolls and flat-out refusing to wear a dress.

'Wait, Sophia! You have to put on a jacket or else might catch a cold!' Renee warned.

'Yeah yeah, I'll put it on later! Gotta go, mommy!' Sophia hastily replied. She ran towards the door and grinned at Peter and Lizzie. 'Here I am! Let's go!' And out she went, you could hear the children loudly laughing in joy outside. Renee watched the adorable sight through the window near the kitchen counter, smiling from ear to ear. Sophia was playing with her friends right in front of the trailer, kicking the football at them and trying to take it back. She looked so happy... Renee let out a soft sigh.

It had been a long journey, but they had finally made it.

Renee walked away from the window and turned off the TV. She turned on the radio on the kitchen counter, she enjoyed listening to some music while doing chores. As she washed the dirty dishes, all the memories from during the past seven years came back to her.

The first days without Dean had to be the worst days she had ever gone through. Renee could've sworn she had never felt so lonely in her entire life, she hadn't even felt that lonely when her parents had passed away. At first Renee stayed away from civilization as much as possible, convinced that the police were still swarming everywhere, searching for her. She had heard Dean claiming that he had killed her and hidden her body before he died, but she wondered if the police had actually fallen for that lie. He had said that to protect her, to make sure she was safe, she felt that in her bones. She had cried many tears those cold summer nights, only having a measly campfire to keep her warm and the duffel bag to use as a pillow. How many times had she hoped to wake up the next morning with Dean lying next to her? Renee had lost count.

However, despite the loneliness and immense grief, she had only one goal in her mind.

Canada.

And so Renee continued the journey on her own, with the clothes on her body and the bag with money as her only possessions. Everything had been taken away from her that harrowing day; her clothes, her only means of transportation, her weapon, but most importantly, the love of her life. Renee was going to make sure Dean's promise would come true, she would never forgive herself if he had died in vain. Renee avoided the big cities as much as she could, only aiming for the smaller towns. If one of the towns happened to have a motel, hotel or inn, then she would only stay for one night; then she would get up early in the morning and leave to travel further. With the money she had with her, she could easily pay the stays and the food. In one of the many small towns she had visited, she also bought new clothes, a new suitcase and a map; after a while, the clothes she had been wearing for days on straight started to stink so badly that it almost made her gag.

Following the map, Renee knew exactly where she was and where she was going to. As long as she would travel up north, she would head into the right direction, which was why she always asked drivers of cars or trucks if they were heading to a place that was located in the north before she would hop on and allow the drivers to take her there, as long as they weren't going to try to harm her. She would rarely hitchhike, only if the days were raining or cold. Hitchhiking was very risky, Renee knew of the many stories of girls going missing after being picked up, but she had decided to take the risk anyway; the sooner she would get to Canada, the better. One time, it looked like she was never going to reach Canada, when a driver pulled over to the side of the road and attempted to molest her. Renee had fought back with all the strength she had, she scratched that pervert's skin until it bled, punched him in the face, kicked him in the stomach, even bit him a couple of times, until he lost his grip on her and allowed her to escape with a few bruises and a tear in her dress. From that day on, Renee swore that every man who would dare to touch her would suffer.

But it didn't last long before she found out she hadn't been traveling alone after all...

It turned out that Dean had left her one last gift before his demise. It all started when Renee was feeling sicker than ever, constantly feeling the urge to throw up. Also, she found at that she hadn't been on her period that month. In the next town she visited, she bought a pregnancy test and tested herself in the bathroom of a motel she stayed at that night... the result was positive.

Oh God... she was pregnant.

Renee couldn't believe it at first, it was too surreal to believe. But the test didn't lie; she was pregnant with her first child. The realization that the little piece of life growing inside her was the result of that one romantic night she and Dean had before the day he died struck Renee like lightning. That's when the shock made place for nothing but pure happiness. A mother... she was going to be a mother! The thought of a part of Dean was living inside her made her so happy. Not all of Dean was lost after all. The fact that she was pregnant gave Renee even more determination to reach Canada. This was not going to be for herself and Dean anymore; it was also going to be for her baby.

As she got closer to the border of Canada, Renee decided it was time for her to get a new identity. In a bar of a rather shady town she visited, she eavesdropped on a conversation going on between two men who were talking about shipping 'goods' over the border and managed to get the address of a person who was specialized in creating fake passports. The smelly bastard wanted twenty thousand dollars for it, but Renee decided to do it anyway. From that day on, she would be known to the outside world as Renee Paquette. This name would serve as her mask for the rest of her life, until the authorities would finally find her and take everything away from her once again.

And after a while, Renee's goal had finally been reached; she had managed to cross the border of Canada. She had done it, Dean would've been so proud of her... God, she could've cried of happiness at that moment. She was finally safe, here she could start all over again, it was only going to be her and her baby.

After searching for many places to stay, Renee settled down on a trailer park many miles away from Toronto. Most of the residents of the trailer park were from the lower class and the trailers were all old and cheap, but that didn't matter to Renee. It was far away from civilization, it was located in the wonderful Canadian nature, the people who lived there were nothing more but nice to her, so far her it was the perfect place to start her new life.

During one night in March, Renee was woken up because the sheets of her bed were soaking wet. It wouldn't last long before she went into labor, it was the worst pain she had ever felt in her entire life. But she wanted to do this herself, there was a big risk that they would find out about her true identity in the hospital; there was no way in hell they were going to take her baby away from her. As Renee gave birth, she wished Dean could've been here to support her and witness his child being born. The thought that this was not possible tore her heart to shreds, she felt so lonely at that moment. But then, after a full hour of nothing more but pain, her daughter was finally there.

Sophia.

From the moment Renee held her newborn daughter in her arms, she swore she would never stop loving this child. And as years passed by, she saw how much Sophia looked like her father. She saw Dean in everything Sophia did, from smiling to the way she walked. This girl was the living memory of the man Renee had loved so much. She decided to put the money she had left aside so Sophia would be able to go to college in the future, because hell, she deserved a good future. Renee managed to work two jobs, one as a waitress in a diner in the town that was located the closest near the trailer park and the other as an employee in a supermarket in that same town, she used her false identity for all of this. Renee would never be able to become a reporter, for which she had studied for many years ago, but she was happy with her jobs. With the money she received, it just enough to pay the bills and the food.

This life was perfect. It was safe, like she and Dean had wished for.

Did Renee still miss Dean? Of course she did, she missed him every day. There were nights were her grief was stronger than ever, she would cry herself to sleep on those nights. She didn't even know whether he was cremated or buried after his death, just thinking that he might be lying in an unnamed grave was enough to make her burst into tears. It broke her heart to know that Sophia would grow up without a father and never knowing who her father actually was. Nobody at the trailer park knew about her past, not even her own daughter. But there would be one day in the future where Renee would have the courage to tell Sophia about her father, she would only tell her if she was old enough to understand all of it. For now, she should enjoy her childhood and be innocent. But Renee knew that Dean would be so proud of her if he saw what she had achieved.

Dean would always be in her heart. No other man would ever replace him.

Just as Renee was about to dry off the last dish, the intro of a song she knew so well was heard on the radio. A piano and a few violins were heard playing together in perfect harmony, it made her skin crawl. She knew exactly what she was about to listen.

'Ultraviolence', from none other than Lana Del Rey.

Man, it had been so long since she had listened to a song of her favorite artist... she had almost forgotten how beautiful it sounded. Renee closed her eyes and she traveled almost immediately seven years back into the past, to the summer that changed her life forever.

She had never forgotten how Dean looked like, not for a single moment. She could see his face again, the face she loved so much. That messy brown hair, those sky blue eyes... it all seemed so real, it was like he was standing in front of her again, alive and well. She saw it all, even though she had her eyes closed. For a moment Renee was afraid the memory of Dean's face would fade away as soon as she would open her eyes, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Renee slowly started dancing through the trailer, allowing the music to take control over her. It felt like she was dancing on clouds, that's what Lana's music made her feel like. She felt Dean's hands touching her body, like he did on the morning where they danced together for the first time. It was so weird... even though he had been dead for years, it was like he was right here in this trailer, dancing with her. Renee couldn't help but sing along with the lyrics.

'I love you the first time, I love you the last time, yo soy la princesa, comprende Miss White Lines? 'Cause I'm your jazz singer, and you're my cult leader, I love you forever, I love you forever...'

Ultraviolence... it was the only word Renee could describe that summer with... but it was the most beautiful summer of her life. And it was all thanks to Dean Ambrose.

'I can hear violins, violins... Give me all of that ultraviolence...'

 **And that my friends was 'Ultraviolence'! Phew, I had a blast writing this fanfic, it was so much fun to do :) I understand that the chapter 'I Love You The First Time, I Love You The Last Time' caused a little bit of controversy, if it really did upset some of you, I apologize. But please do remember, it's just a story. And hey, it might very well be that Dean Ambrose might have a role in a future story ;D I don't own any of the lyrics of the songs in this fanfic. Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, and faving! See you next time!**


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